Common themes emerged last Tuesday as Ely area residents shared their love both for the outdoors and the region as a whole.
The latest installment of “Meet New Elyites” at the weekly Tuesday Group luncheon brought together a new resident to the area, another settling in as a full-time resident, and a third who has returned after living here two decades ago.
Krissy Turk, Tom Clingerman and Amy Saxton all presented to an audience at the Grand Ely Lodge.
Turk, who grew up in south Florida and went to college in North Carolina, interned as a canoe guide at Northern Tier High Adventure.
“I came here not having an idea what the Boundary Waters was like - I definitely didn’t know how to paddle a canoe,” said Turk.
She later worked around the country after obtaining a college degree in outdoor recreational management. Her travels took her to California, Utah, Montana and New Hampshire.
Among her jobs were those as an outdoor educator, kayaking guide, ski and snowboard instructor, and dog musher, and after graduating college, she joined friends on a three-month-long canoe trip from Grand Portage to the Hudson Bay.
But Ely still beckoned and Turk made regular trips here in the summer and three winters as a dog sledding guide.
“I learned my first summer in Minnesota that I might get bit by the bug, and I’m not talking mosquitos but the kind of bug that makes you keep wanting to come back to the north woods,” said Turk.
She eventually decided to make Ely home and “last week marked one full year that I’ve lived in Ely year-round. It also marked one full year of living in the same state and working in the same state.”
Turk and her boyfriend worked briefly as volunteers on a farm near Tower in exchange for room and board, and soon got a job at Boundary Waters Outfitters.
In the winter, she guides for Chilly Dogs Sled Dog Trips.
“Much to my mom’s relief, I’ve finally decided to settle,” said Turk, noting that she is a recent homeowner and one who is enjoying her surroundings in Ely.
“There are always things going on,” said Turk. “I recognize people everywhere. That’s one of my favorite parts of Ely - the community.”
Along with his wife, Karen, Clingerman purchased a home on East Harvey Street about 14 years ago, but only recently became a full-time resident.
“We moved up full-time in June,” said Clingerman.
Clingerman joked that his activities have been chronicled, about a decade apart, in the O’Clock Hour feature that appears weekly in the Ely Echo.
An Air Force veteran, Clingerman worked for 30 years for aviation electronics giant Rockwell Collins and he and his wife settled in Iowa.
Clingerman’s wife hails from the Twin Cities and the couple enjoyed camping trips to the Ely area.
They purchased what he called a “handyman helper” house in town, choosing it from 32 they toured in the community.
“We found a piece of property near Tofte and bought it, but then as we got older, we thought being closer to a hospital might be better, being able to walk to the grocery store might be preferred, so we shifted,” said Clingerman.
Clingerman said he and his wife were once “fanatic skiers,” and he previously ran a sled dog club in Iowa. He also was a scout leader for more than 30 years and a rifle instructor.
He joked that his first weekend in Ely came as temperatures sank far below zero, but he noted that he enjoys playing the bagpipes in his insulated garage.
Clingerman said of Ely that “it turns out to be a more fun place to live than I expected. We’re adjusting and having a good time.”
For Saxton, a return to Ely marks coming full circle after she lived here from 1988 to 2005, working for Piragis Northwoods, Wintergreen, Hand Done T-Shirts and Voyageur Outward Bound School while she was here.
Her two daughters were both born in the Ely hospital. She lived for a time in a trailer near Miners Lake and spent some time at the Kwazy Wabbit, visiting with regular customers.
Saxton also taught Outward Bound courses and said she spent as many as 800 days in the woods.
She remembered being served coffee with a cup and saucer at Britton’s Cafe and remembered that “living in Ely, I really learned that there are a lot of different ways to love and steward the land,” including through motorized uses such as snowmobiling and riding ATVs.
Saxton said she valued her time in Ely but eventually moved to Colorado, where she had various jobs including working as a county planning director where she supervised planning and zoning, housing and building departments.
In 2024, her youngest daughter graduated from college and she returned to Ely for the first time in 19 years to attend an anniversary celebration at Voyageur Outward Bound School.
“I got to meet and reconnect with people who had been here, stayed here and raised their kids here,” said Saxton. “What I felt here was a sense of belonging.”
That fall, Saxton returned to Ely to live, with plans to “semi-retire and make art.”
Those plans soon changed, and she eventually settled into a new job as executive director of Ely’s Well Being Development.
“I’ve been incredibly lucky to have almost every moment of my job life that has been in things that have meaning behind them, things I’m proud of doing, things I feel lucky to be doing,” said Saxton.
She also noted the impact that Outward Bound has had on her life.
“I got to spend hundreds and hundreds of days under the sky,” said Saxton. “That is a very powerful thing, and to do that while a group of people were transforming from strangers to a high-functioning team. Every time you discover what you think are the limits of your strength, you discover more.”
