Perhaps the most historically overlooked building in Ely has been the train depot. Information was hard to find but it seems the railroad came in about 1888.
The Pioneer Mine closed on April 1, 1967. The Zenith Mine continued for a year or two longer. The stockpiles were cleared out in and the tracks were pulled out in 1983 but the depot remained. The building was used by a Wilderness Outfitters for a number of years.
Before the railroad, only a stage coach road came to town from Tower but both timber and iron ore needed to be taken out and sent to points further south. A railroad was the answer.
There were more stumps than houses when the depot was built. A much smaller depot was built in Winton. The trains were the conduit that brought all manner of freight into town: mail, food, and whatever else the now growing town needed. There was no FedEx or Speedy or UPS. The mail also came in on the train. Three boxcars of grapes came on the train in early fall for the Slovenians to make wine.
Eventually when telephone service came to town, the exchange was upstairs of the depot for many years as a service of the DM&IR (Duluth, Mesabi and Iron Range Railway).
The DM&IR depots across northern Minnesota all had a similar and unique style. Especially the roofs. Probably best described as a double hipped roof.
In Ely the second floor housed the DM&IR telephone service for the town of Ely and surrounding area.
The operators were all women and answered you by saying, “Number, please.” Then she made the connection to your party. Telephone operations were later sold to Contel Telephone Company.
A smaller car, called the Bud car, was for passenger service. When my father came home for lunch one day, my pregnant mother said, “We have to go! The baby is on the way.”
So my father piled her and we five young brothers into the station wagon, dropped my mother off at the Shipman Hospital, and continued on with the rest of us to the train depot.
It was $.15 for each of us. It took a half hour to get to Winton and back and he met us at the depot just as we were getting off. “It’s a boy! That made six.
My grandfather proposed to my grandmother walking along those same tracks near the depot in April of 1907.
To see an interesting exhibit of depot-related pictures, visit the Vermilion Campus of Minnesota North College (in the Fine Arts lobby.)
The Ely-Winton Historical Society museum is open Tuesday through Friday, noon until 4 p.m. and sometimes on Saturdays. Call with questions at 218-365-3226 or email at ewhsmuseum@gmail. com
