Do you know of Elk ???
This page is an orphan - a placeholder until we can discover more about Elk. When we encounter a name that is new to us, we add it to our Gazetteer with the hope that we'll discover more information in the future. Such is the case with Elk.
Our sources for Elk (see Mentions and References below) indicate that it was a community with a post office by the same name. Unfortunately our sources aren't clear about the location of Elk other than they indicate that Elk would be found somewhere in Genesee County, Michigan.
From the Blevins / Hellbock List: The post office opened in 1857 and closed in 1903.
This entry could have originated in error. It might be that a source had a misprint, was simply wrong or we made a transcription error while referencing it. Many of the documents we reference are from the 1800s and the early 1900s, with some easier to read than others.
Part of the difficulty in identifying whether a name is a post office or a community lies with how Post Offices were named. We've prepared an article with our understanding of how post offices were named: Naming of Post Offices.
Communities Also Named Elk ...
We found seventeen communities that share the name Elk.
Within Michigan, the name Elk is unique.
Beyond Michigan, we know of another seventeen communities that are located throughout in the United States.
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Pike County
- Please visit our profile page for the Arkansas community of Elk [Pike County].
- California
- Indiana
- Morgan County
- Please visit our profile page for the Indiana community of Elk [Morgan County].
- Kansas
- Chase County
- Please visit our profile page for the Kansas community of Elk [Chase County].
- Maryland
- Cecil County
- Please visit our profile page for the Maryland community of Elk [Cecil County].
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- Chaves County
- Please visit our profile page for the New Mexico community of Elk [Chaves County].
- New York
- Ohio
- Noble County
- Please visit our profile page for the Ohio community of Elk [Noble County].
- Pennsylvania
- Texas
- McLennan County
- Please visit our profile page for the Texas community of Elk [McLennan County].
- Washington
- Spokane County
- Please visit our profile page for the Washington community of Elk [Spokane County].
- West Virginia
- Wyoming
- Teton County
- Please visit our profile page for the Wyoming community of Elk [Teton County].
Miscellaneous References and Mentions for Elk ...
We've created the following list to keep track of the sources that proved useful in adding to our knowledge about Elk:
Found in a comprehensive list of Post Offices that was created by Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<2>
Business Atlas and Shippers' Guide (1895)
Published by Rand McNally & Co.
A note taken from the Shipper's Guide for Elk - Services available: had a Post Office, no Railroad mentioned
Rand McNally Map of Michigan (1911)
Published by Rand McNally & Co.
More Orphans in Genesee County ...
Can you help?
As we explained above, when we encounter a name that might be a community or a post office we add it to our Gazetteer. If we have little information to go with the name, we call them Orphans. Below are Orphans that we believe to be located in Genesee County.
Footnotes ...
| <1> | If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer. Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name. Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time. Also keep in mind that Elk could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out. |
| <2> | A copy of their list with background information can be found at: https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/ |