Ely Memorial High School’s athletic teams are known as the Timberwolves, and for a couple of minutes this week, they had a live mascot right on campus.
A photo of a wolf located on the sidewalk in front of the high school went viral, capturing the attention of thousands of people via social media and reigniting longstanding debates over wolf control in northeastern Minnesota.
The attention sprung from the photo, which was taken just after 9 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 7, and shared widely via X and Facebook.
Ely school officials addressed some of the hubbub during Monday’s regular school board meeting, when administrators indicated they also noticed the wolf and followed its movements via school cameras.
The school also notified both the police department as well as the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, superintendent Anne Oelke told board members.
“The offices were monitoring it on our monitors,” said Oelke. “We knew where it was and where it was going.”
Tim Leeson, the district’s facilities manager, said he confirmed through the video system that the animal was indeed a wolf.
“At first I was a little skeptical, but I looked at the cameras and it was definitely a wolf on campus,” said Leeson.
Leeson added that the video evidence showed the wolf first on the elementary playground and then “running through the gates here and across to the high school, where the photo was taken.”
Children were inside the school buildings and not outside when the wolf made its way through the school grounds.
In a matter of hours, the photo was widely shared on Facebook, both on the Ely Echo’s page as well as the Ely School District’s and other individuals.
Reaction was varied and largely followed the typical debate over wolf management in the region, including calls for a hunting season as well as remarks indicating that the wolf was in its natural territory and citing Ely’s proximity to nearby wilderness.
Even U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber entered the fray, sharing an Ely Echo post and commenting “seeing a wolf stroll near a school while kids are in class is a stark reminder that gray wolf populations are WELL past restored. They must be removed from the endangered species list.”
Stauber’s post resulted in 274 shares, nearly 3,000 reactions and hundreds of comments - many from Ely area residents - representing both sides of the often contentious wolf debate.
