Elkton, Todd County celebrate bicentennial

Elkton and Todd County celebrated their bicentennial Saturday with a ceremony and unveiling of a statue of an Elk on the Historic Public Square.

Several local citizens and elected officials participated in some way—some through song and some by presenting a portion of the community’s history to a mostly masked and socially-distanced crowd.

Elkton native Robert Martin portrayed founding father John Gray and noted how the first courthouse was outgrown quickly and that brought about the Historic 1835 Courthouse that still stands today as home to a welcome center.

Mayor Arthur Green donated a statue of an elk that was unveiled on the east side of the square and he says it’s a nod to the town’s beginnings, when Elkton was named after herds of elk once drawn to a salt lick near what’s now Elk Fork Creek.

While the day was focused on looking back at what’s made Elkton special, Mayor Green urged those in attendance to make their own mark on the town’s story in the future.

Bobbie Dorris of the Robert Penn Warren Birthplace Museum Board of Directors was among those offering remarks, noting Warren’s place in Todd County’s history as a Guthrie native who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry and fiction and who was the nation’s first official poet laureate.

Listen to entire ceremony below:

https://soundcloud.com/user-350001776/elkton-bicentennial-ceremony-11212020