From Staff of the Sherburne History Center
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Sherburne County and Mapping Minnesota
1849 map of Territory of Minnesota Maps provide wonderful information and great appreciation for the early history of Minnesota. An early map of the Minnesota Territory, dated 1849, holds significant information about the settlement of Minnesota and the creation of Sherburne County. One of the original counties of the Minnesota Territory, Benton County, along with the two other counties, Washington and Ramsey, covered large areas of land. In 1856 the Minnesota Territorial legislature created Sherburne County out of a small, southernmost section of Benton County. Sherburne County, we all know, was named after Minnesota Supreme Court Associate Justice Moses Sherburne. Senator Thomas Hart Benton, of Missouri, served as the namesake for Benton County. The other original counties also held political significance in their names. Washington County, obviously named in honor of President George Washington. Ramsey County honored the first Territo...
More Fire In Elk River
Elk River Potato market during better times, circa 1900. SHC photo collections, 1995.017.012 Fire is all too common in farming communities. Barns and haystacks catch on fire. Wood buildings routinely burn. In 1924 Elk River, however, a particularly unusual fire erupted in the potato warehouse and the Elk River Fire Chief immediately suspected arson. Trainmen traveling through Elk River discovered a fire in the potato warehouse at 5 am on February 2, 1924. Luck followed the city and firefighters on this day. The Elk River fire siren had failed earlier in the week and continue to malfunction. The trainmen notified the telephone exchange. Telephone operators then notified firefighters by telephone. Fortunately, the fire remained small. After the firefighters entered the warehouse, they discovered several small fires. In an hour’s time, they extinguished the fire. Inspection of the wareh...
Pierre Bottineau Building Elk River
Pierre Bottineau, surveyor, land developer, translator and explorer, played a vital role in the early settlement of Sherburne County and Elk River. Pierre Bottineau circa 1855 Born to a French Canadian father and half-Dakota, half- Ojibway mother, Pierre Bottineau was native to the frontier Minnesota. As he traveled and explored the territory, he helped develop a number of towns. In about 1849, he arrived in the area of Elk River and commissioned the construction of a hotel along the banks of the Mississippi River. The buildings remained in Elk River longer than Bottineau. Pierre Bottineau originally built a cabin near the mill races on Orono Lake. The second Bottineau structure, built in 1849, housed the carpenter Bottineau hired to build his hotel. In quick order, the hotel, christened the Riverside, opened for service. The carpenter’s cabin served as a small saloon for hotel guests and the increasing population of Elk River....