Elk Creek, NE

Elk Creek began around 1873 after the Atchison and Nebraska Railroad crossed the area and took its name from the nearby creek, whose name recalled elk seen there. Johnson County Central Public Schools provides the local school connection. Beneath the surrounding countryside lies the Elk Creek carbonatite, a buried geologic complex that the U.S. Geological Survey describes as enriched in niobium, rare earth elements, scandium, and titanium; it straddles Johnson and Pawnee counties southwest of the village. The deposit is an exploration and research subject, not an operating mine, so Elk Creek's present landscape joins a rail-era village to a nationally studied mineral resource.