Elk Point

The company Elk Point's militia became fought its last battle far from Dakota. Mustered at Sioux City on March 31, 1863, Company B spent the war guarding settlements, and in 1865 some two dozen of its men escorted James Sawyers's wagon-road party bound for Virginia City, Montana. On August 13 Cheyenne warriors, whose Powder River hunting country the road meant to cross, attacked the train at Bonepile Creek in present Wyoming. Private Anthony Nelson was killed after a truce broke down, and the Cheyenne let the train pass for a wagonload of supplies.

What the plaque says

Elk Point Lewis & Clark camped here and saw much "elk sign" on August 22, 1804 and held first election in northwest that evening. In 1856, the Sioux City-Ft. Randall Military Road passed hereby. Eli Wixson arrived on 22 July 1859 and built a log cabin for travellers and trade store for Indians. In 1860, John R. Wood and family arrived as did George Stickney, first attorney. Cole County (now Union) was created in 1862 and Elk Point became 3rd county seat by popular vote in April, 1865. In March, 1861, Wood & Sheldon hauled logs for Episcopal Church organized by Melanchton Hoyt. Wixson was first postmaster 9 July 1860 and by 1862 had a two-story hotel where the militia rendezvoused in the Indian scare of 1862. This group, with 61 of its 90 members from Elk Point, became Company B. Dakota Cavalry under Captain William Tripp. N. J. Wallace taught first school in 1861-62. Fairchild & Green had first regular store in 1865. Village organized April 24, 1862. John R. Wood, Eli B. Wixson, Myron Sheldon, W. W. Adams and Preston M. Hotchkiss Trustees. It was incorporated by the legislature, by a 23-page act, January 10, 1873. The Leader, Edited by F. O. Wisner, 3/17/70 was first newspaper. The first child was a son of Joseph LaBarge in 1861. J. W. Hoffman had first flour mill in 1873, succeeded by M. W. Sheafe's Dakota mills, first roller mill in territory, 1881 and largest with 4000 bbl. warehouse. The Dakota Southern reached Elk Point, Nov. 13, 1872. It was never a steamboat town.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ponca State Park — 6.5 mi
  Oak ravines and bluffs at the downstream end of the Missouri's last unchannelized reach in Nebraska, with a three-state overlook and the river's resource and education center.
• National Music Museum — 14 mi
  One of the great collections of musical instruments in the world, on a college campus in a prairie town, built around a band teacher's thousands of horns, fiddles and curiosities.
• Spirit Mound Historic Prairie — 19 mi
  A lone hill north of Vermillion that Lewis and Clark walked to on a scorching day in 1804, now one of the few places left where you can stand exactly where they stood.

More markers nearby

• First Election in Northwestern United States — steps away
• Grasshopper Cross — 4.0 mi
• St. Paul Lutheran Church — 5.1 mi
• Richland Methodist Episcopal Church — 5.4 mi