Elk Falls, an incorporated city of Elk county, is located in Elk Falls township on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., 10 miles southcast of Howard, the county seat. It has a bank, a weekly newspaper (the Journal), good churches and schools, a money order postoffice with one rural route, telegraph and express offices, and a large local trade. It derives its name from the waterfall in the Elk river near by. The population according to the 1910 census report was 271.

The first house at Elk Falls was a 10 by 12 box house on the claim of R. H. Nichols, and was built in 1870. A postoffice was established in the same year. Mr. Nichols put up an office in which he conducted a loan and real estate business, and a store building was erected by A. F. Gitchell and his son, Charles Gitchell, in which they conducted a general merchandise business. The first school was taught by Miss Dora Simmons, in her father's residence in 1870. The attendance was about 25. The next year the first school building was erected.