<P> Elk Grove is a city in Sacramento County, California, located just south of the state capital of Sacramento . It is part of the Sacramento--Arden - Arcade--Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area . As of 2015, the population of the city was estimated at 167,965 . The second - largest city in Sacramento County, Elk Grove was the fastest growing city in the U.S. between July 1, 2004, and July 1, 2005 . </P> <P> Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga entered the region in 1808, naming the valley "Sacramento Valley" in honor of Sacramento, the Holy Sacrament in Spanish, giving the northerly city of Sacramento of which Elk Grove is a suburb its name . A writer on Moraga's expedition wrote of the region: "Canopies of oaks and cottonwoods, many festooned with grapevines, overhung both sides of the blue current . Birds chattered in the trees and big fish darted through the pellucid depths . The air was like champagne, and (the Spaniards) drank deep of it, drank in the beauty around them ." </P> <P> Elk Grove was founded in 1850 as a stage stop for travelers coming from Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area, when the Elk Grove Hotel and Stage Stop was opened by James Hall and the town was subsequently named after it . In 1868 the Western Division of the Central Pacific Railroad came through about a mile east of Elk Grove . At this new location another hotel was built to accommodate travelers and was also named the Elk Grove Hotel . </P> <P> In the following decades, Elk Grove remained a small farming community with little urban development . In the late 1980s, suburban development projects began to spring up around the community, specifically in the north near Sacramento . This was meant to serve Sacramento's population as well as San Francisco commuters looking for a community relatively near the San Francisco Bay Area which they could settle in and still commute from . This set off a period of rapid suburban growth which peaked in the years 2004 and 2005 when Elk Grove was declared the fastest growing city in the US . </P>

How did elk grove ca get its name