Very rarely did they make the treacherous travels from nearby La Grande, because it was 120 miles away by river through the valley, which back then was covered in thick forest.

(Today, La Grande and Elgin are only 20 miles away via Wallowa Lake Highway).

Even though his home is not set in the history in Elgin there is a letter from his wife's sister attesting to this fact.

Mr. McKinnis built the mills from Elgin to La Grande and also owned all the century farms in the valley passing them down to his kin in death.

The city was platted in 1886 following the washout of Ruckles Road over the Blue Mountains, which caused investors to leave nearby Summerville for Elgin.

[8] By 1887 Elgin had general stores, a livery, a hotel, and a church, as well as a nearby sawmill, which continues as a more modern Boise Cascade mill.

[9] Between 1887 and 1908, the area around Elgin had 35 sawmills, most transportable water-driven whipsaws (vertical reciprocating saws).

[10] Local landowners would sell the trees for 50 cents per thousand board feet, which is about how much the sawmills could handle in a day.

[12] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 0.99 square miles (2.56 km2), all of it land.

Jubilee Lake and its campground are 19 miles (31 km) north of Elgin, in the Umatilla National Forest.

[14][15] This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F (22.0 °C).