The town of Elkin was chartered in 1889 and is located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Surry County. It was named for the Elkin River, locally known as the Big Elkin Creek, which was first identified on the North Carolina Colet map of 1770. Settlers were present as early as 1752, but it wasn't until Richard Gwyn built a gristmill on the creek in the 1840s that the community began growing. The arrival of the Northwest North Carolina Railroad in 1890 allowed the industries of textiles, shoes, locust pins and brackets, and furniture to flourish. Withstanding the Yadkin River floods of 1916 and 1940, Elkin continued to prosper alongside its largest industry, Chatham Manufacturing Company. Famous for Chatham blankets, Klondike Farm, and the Elkin & Alleghany Railway, Elkin is affectionately known as "the best little town in North Carolina."