A town with four names; The alternate names were, Smyth, Silver City and Elk City. Situated on the Montreal River along Hwy 65 West, 67km from New Liskeard. A prosperous lumbering town with plenty of history and samples of the beautiful outdoors. Elk Lake Museum, housed in a former church, is chock full of displays on how life and the town was in the early days.

The Elk Lake Eco Resource Centre is a new multi-million dollar facility dedicated to fostering dialog, education, research and innovation that integrates economic and community stability with ecological sustainability in resource based economies. Early European settlement was rooted in the quest for mineral riches; however, the mainstay of the area was and is logging, perhaps followed by game hunting and fishing.