Elko, New York

The Quakers, with the blessing of Seneca diplomat Cornplanter, established a mission on the Allegany Indian Reservation beginning in 1798.

The town's formation came at a time when the lumber industry in southwestern Cattaraugus County was briefly booming; over 2,000 people were resident in the towns of Elko, South Valley and Red House in 1890, ten times as many residents as there are in the area as of 2010.

Most of its usable land was located on the Allegany Indian Reservation, which complicated the town's development.

The town's numerous creeks (Quaker Run, Hotchkiss Hollow and Wolf Run) all provided ample hydropower for sawmills, an early driver of the area's economy; this eventually subsided when steam power grew to dominate.

In 1941, the Buffalo Courier-Express penned a summary of the town, noting that at the time, it was the smallest in Western New York, was too small to cover interest payments and thus could not afford to incur any debts.

Its commerce consisted of a processing plant operated by the Fairmont Creamery, a general store (which doubled as the post office), a garage, and a service station, along with several family farms.

[3] The landmark Quaker Bridge was demolished and replaced with one several miles upstream, near Steamburg, when the Southern Tier Expressway was built, and the highways serving Elko were all reconfigured to eliminate most of the town's infrastructure (after the construction of the dam, the town was left with only one road to maintain, Hotchkiss Hollow Road).

New York State Route 280, in its original configuration, was the primary road through the town's population centers.

[6] Of Elko's territory, Quaker Bridge was most directly affected by the Kinzua Dam construction and was made uninhabitable by the flooding.

Built mainly as a lumber road along Wolf Run, its only major developments were a rail station and a small hotel.

It reportedly got its name from an agent of the Holland Land Company who uncovered a den of wolf cubs while hunting in the area.