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Patricia "Pat" Lammi, 88, of Ely, passed away on Sunday, December 4, 2022 at Carefree Living in Ely. Family arrangements have been entrusted to Kerntz Funeral Home of Ely.

Carl Henry Herrala, 86, of Ely, MN passed away Friday, December 2, 2022, at the Ely hospital. Carl was born August 22, 1936, to Andrew and Tyne (Ojala) Herrala. Carl grew up and attended school in Ely. After high school he served in the US Air Force stationed in Japan. Carl studied electronics and worked several years at the Ely hospital as a facilities maintenance technician.

Carl was known to be intelligent, thoughtful, and generous. He was very independent, self-reliant and lived simply, but his caring and perpetually upbeat nature earned him many friends.

He liked reading, was a skilled woodworker, and enjoyed listening to music on high-end audio equipment. He loved living in Ely and enjoyed exploring the surrounding forests and lakes. He liked listening to Minnesota Twins baseball. For a while, Carl was active at with the Ely Senior Center and served as an election judge.

State Senator-elect Grant Hauschild (DFL—Hermantown) said State Representative-elect Roger Skraba they will press to extend Unemployment Insurance benefits for workers laid off because of Northshore Mining’s ongoing idling when the Legislature reconvenes in January.
For Babbitt Mayor Andrea Zupancich, the decision to extend the benefits is a no-brainer.
“I absolutely hope they would since Senator Tom Bakk and Rep. Rob Ecklund both had that in the works prior. But I hope they do more than just that and come through for the area. We need a strong backbone and it’s not looking very good here for jobs. We need more than just seasonal tourist jobs,” said Zupancich.

The Ely school board looks to be on board with saving historic and artistic murals that once adorned the walls in school buildings.
David Tice Workman’s Ely murals have been listed on the database of the Smithsonian Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture with assistance from Judy Pope.
Pope, a resident of Reston, Virginia and a Winton summer resident, was a dedicated volunteer at the Ely-Winton Historical Society. She also worked as a docent implementing programs on American history for children at the Smithsonian Musuems.

In a letter to me over 50 years ago, my dad wrote “Not only does one leave behind the stains of toil, but also chills, aches, and pains.”
This poetic philosophy was in reply to my question to him about the cultural foundation of the sauna -- what, besides a bath, did a sauna mean to Finns?
Matt Luthanen was a man who knew the stains of toil. For 37 years he descended 1700 feet into a vein of iron ore on the Vermilion Range of northeast Minnesota to drill, dynamite, and tug the stubborn blue mineral to the surface. Mud pulled at his boots, dust penetrated his pores, the persistent air drill racket robbed his hearing, acrid smoke invaded his lungs.
How did this environment mold him? In a picture taken underground by a co-conspirator, we see Matt, cocky grin, miner’s helmet askew, holding a lighted stick of dynamite. If we have to do this, let’s have fun.

by Tom Coombe
One of Class A hockey’s most prolific scorers couldn’t be contained last weekend.
As a result, Tyler Hennen and Kittson County Central swept two games from the Ely Timberwolves in a season-opening series at the Ely Arena.
Hennen had a whopping eight points in the Bearcats’ 9-5 win on Nov. 25, and the following afternoon he added four goals and two assists in a 7-2 romp.
In less than 24 hours, Hennen racked up 14 points and all but single handedly controlled the series.
Ely, which at times struggled on offense a year ago, managed seven goals in two games but couldn’t match Hennen’s firepower.
The opening game of the series was decided in the second period, when the Bearcats scored twice on the power play in the first four minutes and rattled off six straight goals in a 13-minute span to grab an 8-2 lead.

by Tom Coombe
Ely’s high school football team has a pair of all-district honorees, including a repeat selection.
Senior Erron Anderson was selected to the North Sub-District 9-Man All-District Team, as picked by league coaches, and he’s joined by teammate and fellow senior Jason Kerntz on the squad.
A third Ely player, junior Deegan Richards, gained honorable mention.
The recognition comes after a year in which the Wolves were very competitive in all but two regular season games - but only had one victory to show for it.
Anderson, a two-way starter for the Wolves, was a key player on both sides of the ball.
He racked up 400 yards rushing and picked up another 152 receiving for the year, and scored six touchdowns.
A defensive lineman, he recorded 43 tackles with a fumble recovery and an interception return for a touchdown.
Kerntz teamed with Anderson to form a potent one-two combination in the Ely backfield,

On November 8, 1922, Regional Forester A.S. Peck approved a recreation plan for the Superior National Forest drafted and submitted in May 1922 by Arthur Carhart (1892-1978), a young landscape architect from Iowa that worked for the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) from 1919-1923.
While Carhart’s career with the USFS was short, his recommendations for recreation management on the Superior provided foundational guidance for the numerous interconnected waterways that form the core of the now Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Carhart’s plan, which highlighted the significant potential of the area for canoe-based recreation, was based on observations gathered during two, 21-day canoe trips on the Superior, completed in July-August 1919 and May-June 1921 with Forest Guard Matt Soderback. In his plan, Carhart incisively noted that the Superior, “as a canoe country, would have few, if any competitors” (p.45).

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) permit reservations for the 2023 quota season, May 1 to Sept. 30, will be available beginning at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023.
Visitors are encouraged to book their reservations online at www.recreation.gov/or by calling 1-877-444-6777. To ensure a successful reservation process in 2023, Forest managers encourage visitors to:
Plan ahead by having at least three travel options (dates and entry points) in mind before making a reservation. Exploring new destinations is part of a wilderness experience!

Ely Public Schools
Independent School District No. 696

TRUTH IN TAXATION MEETING

Ely Public Schools will hold a public meeting
on its tax levy and fiscal 2023 budget.

School Board Meeting
Monday, December 12, 2022
6:00 p.m.

School Board Meeting Room
2nd floor of the Memorial building
660 E. Harvey St.
Ely, MN 55731

Ely Echo December 3 and 10, 2022