A crowd of over 250 people turned out on Sunday, June 14 for the dedication of the Ely Miners Memorial held at the historic Pioneer Mine.
This event has been over 20 years in the making. It started in 1889 when the first of 218 men didn’t come home from work. A project to build the Ely Miners Memorial was announced in 2008 and fundraising began.
The Ely City Council gave the go-ahead to an official Miners Memorial in 2011. The goal was “to create a memorial to the miners who died here and whose work contributed to the success of industry during World War II.”
Speaking at the event were State Representative Roger Skraba, Ely City Council member Albert Forsman, Stacey Scholz from Iron Range Resources, Doug Luthanen, who wrote the “Stains of Toil” song that is quoted on the monuments, head researcher Michele Lammi, EAHC board member Bill Erzar, and Becky Rom, who lost her grandfather in a mining accident in 1918.
The granite panels show the name and age of each miner along with which Ely mine they worked in.
A link to the video of the event:
https://www.elyecho.com/video/798,ely-miners-memorial-dedication-held-on-june-14
