Over the decades, Ely has adopted various slogans to promote the area as a tourist destination. I can think of a couple that rattled around back during my youth.
“America’s Vacationland” is one.
Also “Where the Wilderness Begins.” Today there’s “Ely Has It All” and the clever “Summertime and the Living is Ely.” (That one brings back memories of tuning to WDGY AM on the car radio on August nights and hearing their jingle “Summertime, and the Listening is Wee Gee.”) But the slogan that I remember most was “Canoe Capital of the World.” A rather assertive slogan that focused on a portion of the third most influential industry in town at that time.
Of course everyone knows about the canoe from the Cliff Edwards hit “Paddlin’ Madelin Home.” (I bet you’re singing it in your head right now.) My personal experience with it is that deer flies think for them it’s a pretty convenient container for your head when you’re portaging one of these humble watercraft.
Nevertheless many people enjoy quiet glides across area lakes.
And that includes Locals. In contrast to my aversion to the physical strain of punching holes in the water, many of my friends have completed impressive trips in their canoes.
Let’s remember a few such trips.
Dave Kromer (EHS Class of ‘67) was working at Camp Easton on Little Long Lake during the summer of 1964 when he and four buddy co-workers challenged themselves to paddle to James Bay of Hudson Bay.
So in August they shoved their canoes into the Abitibi River near Gardner, Ontario and headed north. The trip took 11 days and included rapids, dams, moose, eagles and one swamped canoe.
Finally they reached James Bay, 400 miles north and 800 feet lower than their starting point.
Why paddle a 17-foot aluminum canoe north through Ontario by this rarely-used route just take a train back? Dave explained “for adventure.”
How about a southbound trip?
Jim Beaty (EHS Class of 68) and his party canoed from The Range to Cloquet following the route taken by explorers, prospectors, settlers, and ancients down the Saint Louis River. They tossed gear into their canoes, one of which was a 19-foot square stern, near Eveleth. They camped along the way for five nights and were entertained one of those nights by a local musician. The trip was a leisurely one as they enjoyed the flow of the Saint Louis.
I’ve often thought that an interesting and promotionable canoe race could be organized from, say Lake Vermilion to Cloquet starting out uphill in the Hudson Bay watershed then over the hump to the Saint Louis in the Lake Superior watershed.
Maybe Fortune Bay and Black Bear Casinos might want to sponsor one.
Then there’s competitive canoeing. Among serious canoe athletes the Hunters Island Loop, a 144 mile lakes-and-portages challenge along and north of the Minnesota/Ontario border is a Big One. A record of 38 hours to complete the loop was held by Joe Meany. Joe and his partner Eugene Tetreault had won the 1964 Ely-to-Atikokan-and-back canoe race.
Steve Park (EHS Class of 1970) and Dan Litchfield trained and practiced and planned to see if they could break that record.
In June 1993 they were ready for the try. Packing food like sausage, peanut butter, cantaloupe, and egg nog, they clicked their stopwatch at Prairie Portage and raced off. Being late June they enjoyed over 16 hours of daylight that day, all in the plan, streaked across the lakes and ran the portages through the night as they circled The Island counterclockwise. The conditioning, planning, gear, and their athleticism was rewarded with a new record time of 28 hours and 47 minutes. An average speed of over five miles per hour.
Then in 2004 they broke their own record with a time of 28:27.
My most adventuresome canoe trip was a lazy float down the Burntside River to the bridge at County 88 with my sons in1983.
I was young and no, I didn’t record the trip time. I retired that canoe some years ago, set it on a stand outside the cabin, and grew mostly failed crops in it. It’s now up the hill in the brush awaiting its next adventure.
Doug Luthanen grew up in Ely and graduated from Memorial High School in 1967. He wrote a weekly viewpoint column for the Northwest Arkansas Times for four years and is an occasional contributor to The Ely Echo.
