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The 2019 firearms deer season was not what the state was hoping for, at least in terms of harvest.
For the Tower area, the buck harvest was down 21% while the total harvest was down 42% compared to 2018.
The numbers are for northern St Louis and Lake counties including Permit Areas 117, 118, 119, 130, 131, 132 176, 177 and 178.
In the Tower area bucks comprised 82% of the harvest and antlerless deer just 18% as a result of a more conservative season structure in most permit areas to allow for population growth,” said area wildlife supervisor Tom Rusch.
The state-wide harvest was 169,869 deer including 93,384 (55%) bucks and 76,485 antlerless (45%).
Adult Buck Harvest by DPA (% Change)
117 +6.3%
118 -8.6%
119 -24.1%
130 -29.5%
131 -33.7%
132 -25.2%
176 -25.6%
177 -24.7%
178 -16.3%
Avg = -20.5%

by Tom Coombe
It may be too early to say how the Ely Timberwolves will stack up this winter in Section 7A, but Tuesday’s season-opener offered more than a few reasons for optimism.
The Wolves, despite an overall lack of height, a key injury-related absence, and several new faces in the lineup, ran away from visiting Two Harbors in the second half of a 76-41 high school boys basketball victory.
Senior Dylan Fenske had 31 points and 11 rebounds and classmate Evan Omerza dished out a game-high 11 assists as the Wolves warmed up after a slow start.
Fenske and Omerza are the only returning starters for an Ely team that, entering the 2019-20 season, is a question mark in 7A.

It’s an anthem of mine, the phrase, “off the beaten path”,and I wish I would have been the one to say it first, be the initiator of such thinking. I would have loved knowing the coined words fell from me, it’s such a clever turn a phrase, but, alas, I am not.
My wife and I do that more often than most could possibly imagine and in so doing we’ve found in our footfalls a further place than, “off the beaten path” where the majority have not traveled. It could be a wanderer’s way, for me, it’s like a shooting star only earthen bound, or maybe from a stellar poem. It’s simply, the road less travelled.

by Tom Coombe
With 95 employees and payroll and benefits exceeding $8 million, Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital is one of the region’s largest employers.
Those numbers could jump significantly if an expansion project currently in the works comes to fruition.
As many as 25 new jobs and an additional $1.7 million in annual payroll could result from the expansion, state lawmakers heard Monday from hospital CEO Michael Coyle, who spoke at the annual legislative meeting hosted by the Community Economic Development Joint Powers Board.
Both there and later in the day, when Coyle briefed hospital shareholders at their annual meeting, there was significant buzz about a project that has been in the talking stages for about a year yet remains a work in progress.

by Tom Coombe
Lunch was served just before noon Monday at the Grand Ely Lodge, but it took almost another two hours to get to the main course.
That’s how long it took before the annual legislative meeting in Ely veered to the area’s most contentious issue - the copper-nickel mining project proposed by Twin Metals Minnesota.
DFL legislators Tom Bakk and Rob Ecklund, who both support the project, acknowledged the opposition they face within their own party on the issue.
“We’re fighting the anti-mining folks every day down there, and you know who they are,” said Ecklund, an International Falls Democrat who represents the Ely area in the State House.
Bakk, the Senate Minority Leader, pushed back against suggestions that Range Democrats aren’t doing enough to support the Twin Metals initiative.

Anthony (Tony O) Orazem of Armstrong Lake, passed away on December 4, 2019.

He was born in Biwabik on January 12, 1945 to Anthony J. (Tony) and Anne (Kolak) Orazem. He grew up and graduated from Aurora-Hoyt Lakes High School, Eveleth Area Vocational Technical School and Bemidji State University with an Industrial Arts Degree. He also served in the Army in Germany.

He loved hunting and fishing with family and friends. Tony was a member the Aurora American Legion for 50 years and a member of the Aurora On Call Fire Department for 28 years. He was a past member of the All Slav Club and Slovenian Union of America.

Karl Rukavina, 88, of Winton, a proud Korean War Veteran, passed away on Tuesday, December 3, 2019 at the Boundary Waters Care Center in Ely. Family arrangements have been entrusted to Kerntz Funeral Home of Ely.

Gregory Lynn “Greg” Askeland, 64, of Sioux City passed away Sunday, December 1, 2019 of natural causes. A funeral service will be held at 10:00 a.m. Friday, December 6, 2019 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Sioux City. Pastor David Carlson will officiate. Burial will be at a later date. Online condolences may be directed to www.meyerbroschapels.com.

Greg was born March 4, 1955 in Estherville, Iowa. He had recently relocated to Sioux City, Iowa, a city he loved and the place where he had raised his children, Katy Herbold and Eric Askeland, with their mother Susan Askeland.

Robert L. “Bob” Bodine, 80, of Virginia passed away Sunday, November 10, 2019 at Essentia Health Northern Pines Nursing Home in Aurora.

He was born February 25, 1939 in Soudan to Bernard and Lempi (Kultala) Bodine; grew up in Soudan and graduated from Tower-Soudan High School in 1957. Bob was active in the Tower-Soudan High School Band and the Soudan Band. He graduated from Ely Junior College and Stout State University in Menomonie, WI.

Bob was united in marriage to Paulette R. Nikkinen on April 9, 1960 in Ely. He resided in Ely, Tower and Babbitt and had been a Virginia resident since 1996,

He was a member of Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Virginia, a former member of United Steelworkers Union local 4108 of Aurora. Bob worked as a lab technician for Erie Mining Company in Aurora, in the office for Reserve Mining Company in Babbitt and retired in 2001 as a heavy equipment operator for LTV Mining in Aurora after 37 years of service.

by Bill Tefft
The Ely Field Naturalists will make a presentation in Classroom CL104 at Vermilion Community from 6:30 until 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 4.
This meeting will provide a wrap-up to many of the 2019 field naturalist activities and will prepare for upcoming Christmas Bird Counts, winter solstice celebration and 2020 plans.
The Ely Christmas Bird Count will be conducted on Ely’s Winter Solstice date, Saturday, Dec. 21. The solstice occurs at 10:19 p.m. CST on the Dec. 21. Many calendars show the date of the solstice as Dec. 22 which is accurate using the Universal Time Clock.
Information on all of the Christmas Bird Counts in Minnesota can be found at the Minnesota Ornithologist’s Union website calendar of bird count locations at www.moumn.org/CBC/cal/calendar.php