Orr, on the east shore of Pelican Lake, is a village on the road to the wilderness. The region was the hunting grounds of Indians, who roamed the forests and paddled the waters. They have had a settlement on Nett Lake since about 1600. Nett Lake is one of the reservations under the jurisdiction of the Consolidated Chippewa Indian Agency. Into this area replete with wild life came fur traders. In 1889, Henry Connors, from Superior, Wisconsin, built a trading post on the Pelican River, about one mile south of the site of the present Orr. After passing through difference hands, the post was bought in 1895 or 1896 by William Orr, who held undisputed sway over both Indians and whites for many years, and after whom the village was named.

Lumbering helped to open up the country. Fine stands of pine covered the area, and records show that a man named Saunders was logging on the south shore of Pelican Lake as early as 1891. The logs were hauled to the Willow River, floated on the Little Fork to Rainy River, and thence across Lake of the Woods to Rat Portage (Kenora), a drive of nearly 400 miles. Stephen Gheen build a sawmill at Elbow Falls on Elbow River, a short distance from the village site, in 1900, and sawed lumber for the first buildings in Orr. Several logging companies were operating in the territory; later they joined to form the Virginia and Rainy Lake Lumber Company.

By 1905, the right-of-way for a logging railroad had been cut beyond Orr, which now had a hotel, store, and other buildings. In 1906-07, train service to the Canadian border was begun.

As lumbering waned, Orr became a virtual "ghost" town. Although agriculture has been developed to some extent in the area, today the town relies largely on the tourist trade. It is the last outfitting point for sportsmen bound for the border lakes and is the railroad station for freight going to that region.

Orr was incorporated as a village in 1935. Its new brick school, St. Louis County School 142, was constructed in 1936; the first school was built in 1907. The Senior High Department is the farthest north of all rural high schools in St. Louis County. Orr is headquarters for forest rangers supervising the 918,560-acre Kabetogama State Forest, now largely incorporated in the Superior National Forest.