Elk Lake’s unique background goes back  hundreds, perhaps thousands of years before the arrival of the European. Remnants of Pictographs on rocks showed what were clearly trade routes used by the Cree and Anishnabai people. These routes were already well established prior to the establishment of the Fur Trade of the mid 1600s. Remnants of an Aboriginal graveyard that can be seen on the south side of town perhaps a testament to the fact that Elk Lake had an early settlement on it shores.

   The Ojibway tribe named the lake after the huge herds of elk that roamed the area at this time. Fur trading remained the mainstay of the region until the early nineteenth century when the strong white and red pine trees proved ideal material for masts to be used on British sailing ships, and the need for this and other lumber for construction and newspaper use saw the many stands along the Ottawa, and eventually the Montreal rivers, mass harvested by Lumber King J.R.Booth and others. The great Canadian railway boom of the time, prompted government surveyors to investigate the building of the T&NO railway into Timiskaming to take advantage of the fertile “Little Clay Belt.” Advertising in Canada and the US was aimed at getting the area settled, but nothing would bring the population to the North faster than the huge silver finds in the Cobalt area, which rapidly spread up the Montreal River and beyond.

“As the swelling tide of prospectors washed over the rest of Temiskaming, they opened up the back country and in the process set the stage for the founding of Elk Lake” Elk Lake Lore & Legend- by Dorothy Farmiloe.  
  
“The story of Elk Lake’s beginnings as a town must, however, start with it founder, no ordinary man by any means.
 
“Jack Munroe, a prospector himself and a reputed mining engineer, was also a famed football star, amateur boxing champion of the American West Coast, and challenger for  the World Heavyweight Title in 1904.  After his return to Canada during the early days of the Cobalt silver rush, he became the founder and first reeve of Elk Lake. He proved to be a skilled administrator and leader of men. During World War 1 he showed exceptional bravery in the trenches, was wounded, and lost the use of his famous right arm. One of the most versatile Canadians, who ever lived,he was also a published writer who loved poetry and good literature, a multi-talented man who would have been at home in the Renaissance. “He was” said one commentator, “a Northerner who should be a legend.” And so he was.
The legend of Jack Munroe- by Dorothy Farmiloe
  
   In 1907, Elk Lake was "a city of tents" holding up to 10,000 transient people. The community consisted of two towns, Elk City on one side of the Montreal River and Smyth on the other. Generally known as Elk City at the time, it wasn’t until 1908 that civilized accommodation in the form of houses, hotels and boarding rooms were established. Elk Lake did not, as is commonly thought, grow out of the Hudson’s Bay Company, quite the contrary. Once regular steamboats were passing through Elk Lake, a Hudsons Bay warehouse was built in Smythe to hold goods destined for the main post at Matachewan. Permission was then granted to sell goods to the influx of prospectors and other customers. Demand grew so much, that a larger building had to be built to service local needs.

   A Hudson’s Bay store, Banks, doctors, a power plant to light the city was established, (even though local talk scorned that you needed to light a match to see the lamppost if the light bulb was on!) as well as a post office. The time eventually came to find one name for the settlement, and after much discussion, the name Elk Lake replaced Smythe, Silver City, Elk City. The town was incorporated in 1909, and Jack Monroe was the first reeve.  
  

Residents and entrepreneurs of Elk City soon saw the need to lobby Provincial Government to have the T&NO railway come to the town, and after more than eight years of discussions, finally their efforts were rewarded, in February 1913 when the first train steamed into the streets of Elk Lake.
To commemorate the occasion, a ceremonial silver key, as well as a final silver spike, were made from silver extracted from the nearby Beaver Mine, and presented to the chairman of the T&NO railway, Mr Englehart. The local jeweler, Mr A.J.Ansely, produced this handsome, and valuable piece of artwork. After all the festivities were over, and for many  years hence, the whereabouts of this precious item were unknown. Prior to Mr Englehart’s death in the early 1930s he was living in Petrolia, Ontario, and his home was then donated to the town to be used as a hospital in memory of his late wife, Charlotte.By chance, and chance alone, an Elk Lake teacher, Marion Middleton, decided on a career move and went for nursing training at The Charlotte Englehart Hospital. On dusting duty, one day, she came across a large leather case, and stumbled upon, the missing key. Through her Womans’ Institute organization, an approach was made to have the key relocated to Elk Lake, and in February 1938 the key returned home, some 25 years later. The key has subsequently survived an attempted theft, a fire, and then spent 25 guarded years in the safe at the mining recorder’s office until Elk Lake’s 50th anniversary when it was taken out, and is now proudly displayed in a locked glass case in the James Township office.