Support Ely Business’ With Online Purchases

Minnesota Lynx, back after the all-star break, picked up a 100-93 victory over the Toronto tempo last night.

Mark the 8th straight victory for the Lynx.

I'm Tim Fisher, Eminence Sports.

Well, good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to a little special show we're doing here on WEOI Joel here.

And Terry, you're a nice Terry's voice.

Hi, Terry.

Good afternoon, everybody.

How is everyone doing?

Hope well.

Hope it looks like a little cloudy out there.

Yeah, this has been quite a couple of weeks here for the, for the Ely area.

When did this start?

July 6th?

What was it I saw?

What was the date on that?

Was that right?

Or was it earlier than that?

Somewhere around

there.

I think it was July 6th.

Yeah.

July 6th lightning event.

So yeah, we're on a few weeks of this.

Three, three plus weeks.

Things have settled down a little bit, but.

I know you had mentioned before on the air that the start of the fire season really were not even there.

No,

we have two seasons in the early.

It's usually the spring and the fall where it's higher fire danger.

So we're really, when all of that happened, wasn't technically what we consider our high fire danger.

We just had that perfect storm of weather that just allowed it to be, again, the perfect storm, dry, very hot, unseasonably.

Record breaking heat.

Yeah,

and then a storm which that's usually what happens when we get that type of weather is a big storm So we had all those lightning strikes and therefore that is what has made this developing story

Yeah, now all the updated info is on the WEOI Facebook page We're putting some of it on our main website But the Facebook page is a good place to go because that's easier for Terry and myself when I'm here Joel I'm just here for a few more days.

It's easy

For us, when we're on the road, we see something, we can

share it with everybody.

It's so easy.

It's just a great way, just great tool to just share, share, share.

And then we'll continue to do those hourly updates throughout this whole season.

We are not gonna probably have this go away.

They've said it many times, rain with a name.

Well, in these parts, we don't get a rain with a name.

So that means snow.

And even I went out to the seaplane base this morning for a press tour.

That was really interesting.

Yeah, tell us a Maddie Schaefer that are one of our news.

folks for Civic Media, you're gonna be hearing from her in just a little bit during this hour.

But you went out there with Maddie, tell us a little bit about that.

That must have been an interesting view

inside.

It was, it was really cool.

You know, I grew up here, so I'm used to hearing the beavers.

You know, when I was a kid, that was, you know, my dad would be like, you hear it?

You hear it?

And because they have a distinct sound, it's just a deeper, deeper sound.

So it was really cool to see them up close and personal.

And just the,

The age of these planes, one was in 1956.

One was from 1959.

And I think the other one was in the 60s.

So these aircraft have been around for quite some time, but they're all modernized.

They're all equipped with all the latest technology so they can fly safely and be

and tuned to all of the different conditions via radio traffic and

everything.

So that was really cool.

But what we got to see was a hotshot crew going out.

So how they navigate that whole procedure.

And that was impressive.

So what they do, all the hotshot crew is one side of the docking system that they have there.

And they had all their gear laid out.

And then we waited for a stream of canoes to come.

And so what they do is they strap on one canoe

onto the float plane and then that float plane will carry the pilot and then two hot shot members along with gear and then they take them and ferry them out to the location they're going to and they just keep doing that all day long.

So that whole crew is out in the woods.

So it was just really cool to see that it was cool to like again to see these planes you know 70 year old plane and you know they

I always think of them much bigger than they are, but they're really not that huge, you know, but they do carry.

I think it's like, don't quote me, don't anybody call in and say that's wrong, but I think it's each float carries 150 gallons of water to drop.

So, but all the logistics that go into it and the safety measures and, you know, they fly only if it's safe.

But yeah, it was really cool to see all of that.

So

they're using those right now for the fire purposes.

Right.

But non-fire season, they're there for like rescues and

all kinds of different things.

Yes, they're the main source of rescuing out of the wilderness.

So that is one of their key jobs.

They also do tree seeding and fish.

fish drops.

So

they're a multi-purpose tool here in Ealy.

And so three of them are located at the Ealy Sea Plain Base.

And then I think there's three more in Alaska.

And so they pretty much take care of this region.

But they do fly.

They also will be utilized in Montana and other areas for

like flight scouting and stuff like that.

I think of the reality show alone.

When I, when you talk about those planes, I'm thinking of the plane that comes in when they, when they check out, they hit the button, the plane that comes in and takes them away.

That's what I think of.

That's the crew, you know?

And I'm like, who wants to be the first crew out there?

You know, because you're there.

I mean, it's, this trip was roughly, I think it's a 15 minute trip there to get them, I think 20 minutes, 20 to 25 minutes for the trip to get there, unload the equipment,

Then they'll now make their trip back.

So you have to figure really each plane takes probably Roughly 45 minutes maybe not longer for each crew to get there and back

Yeah,

or if not it would probably be even longer than that.

So that's like a day-long mission just to get

the whole hotshot crew out to that location.

And then there they are.

They're all of these people are heroes to me.

Exactly.

Well, the reason why we came on was to talk a little bit about what we're talking about, but also the main reason of this hour, the noon hour is to

is to give information to our civic media listeners from all around our network, which includes southern Wisconsin and over in upper Michigan.

And I've seen social media posts where people are saying, you know, how can we support you?

You know, for whatever reason, their trip may have gotten canceled for whatever.

And we know what's going on economically with a lot of the businesses.

They said, how can we support them?

So we thought

Let's take a little time to tell people about businesses and the way they can go online and maybe order something, order a gift certificate or support a business out of Ely remotely.

Right.

Right.

And that is, you hit a key point there.

You know, people, either their plans got canceled, but we have so many people that love Ely and they love us from afar and they are reaching out and being like,

I can't believe this is happening.

What can we do?

So it's a whole host of people that want to support ELE.

And this is our way to kind of highlight these businesses.

Again, you have to let us know, because we take us all day to go online to figure out all the websites.

But you have to let us know that information so we can then share that.

But I also would like to point out, if you are tuning in from afar,

please text us and let us know where you're tuning in from so we can give you a shout out to and then also that's that value that we're giving that you know our our businesses know that when they when we're out on the air like this they're hearing us not only in ealy they're healing hearing us all over because we have a very very strong heat map that shows where people tune in from wisconsin to

Illinois, to Iowa, to Texas, all over.

Yeah, very cool.

So you can do it on the Civic Media app, you can Texas, or do you have the physical number?

Oh yeah, I know it by heart.

It's two, one, eight, three, six, five, four, four, four, four.

Got the original number that we had back in the day, so that's really cool.

You can use that to text us.

If you have a business in Ely area and you offer something online or even on Facebook, shoot us a text because we're gonna do this till one o'clock.

So let's dig into a few of them.

We had Irene,

Hartfield does send us, he was the first one actually, and she does a unique business called webgoddess.net.

But she's- Irene, yes.

Yeah.

You know, a fun fact about Irene, she's kind of my relative.

Oh,

really?

Yeah, she's kind of my

relative.

Does she claim you?

I

don't know, Irene, do

you claim me?

Yeah, she's my cousin's aunt for my, so, but we always say, yeah, we're kind of sorta related.

Yeah, so she does, she's been doing websites for quite a while,

looks like.

Well, yes, she has.

From webgoddess.net.

So maybe you're listening right now and you're thinking about putting the website together.

You have been putting it off.

Well, great way to support it.

Ealy business.

Right.

Because a lot of these businesses are probably thinking now, now I wish I had

it.

Exactly.

So web goddess.net.

And we're going to post all these.

We're going to make a Facebook post with all of these in case you miss any of them as we go through.

but the second

one.

I'll take the second one.

Yeah,

because this was a fancy, I've seen this name before, but it's been a long time since

I've had to say it.

As well, too, Nord.

Okay, that is our lovely Jay Spa here in Ely that does nails.

They are the reason I can talk with my hands.

Now,

how do you say it again?

A twal dunore.

A twal dunore.

And a cherry will spell that here in a moment.

Yes, but yes, they do nails, all kinds of different gel manicures, pedicures.

They have a new esthetician in for the summer months.

So they're doing facials and stuff like that.

So it's a great little business in Ely.

It's so warm and welcoming when you walk in there.

You just feel like you're just kind of like transporting in to another.

and Olivia takes really good care of my nails, but Joel's probably looking at me right now going, Terry, your nails look pretty plain right now.

That's because I've been in.

go mode and have not been able to take that time to go see Olivia, but I've got my appointment booked Olivia.

I'm coming.

So you can go to their websites as a great chance for those who visit the Ely area or from outside the area to get one of these certificates now.

So

when you come up here this winter or next summer or whatever, then you're all set to go make a great gift for Christmas, maybe a stocking stuffer for somebody.

It's perfect stocking stuffer.

So you spell the website.

Okay.

E-T-O-I

L-E-D is in dog.

U-N is in Nancy.

O-R-D is in dog.

E-L-E dot com.

If you go to dot com, it'll populate to that square site.

So

yeah.

We'll post that on the Facebook

page when we're on

that after one o'clock.

But a very unique business, a great way to support an E-L-E business here.

Let's move to our third one here.

It looks like we have the Bear Tooth Tree Service.

So maybe you have a property up here or whatever it may be and you've got something that has, you've wanted to have done or maybe your camera on your property says that, yeah, there's something down right now.

It sounds like these guys might be the place, right?

That is correct.

They are your tree removal service and they will go out and take care of some of those unwanted trees or, you know,

half broken trees that happen sometimes and all of that stuff.

All

right, Beartoothtreeservice.com is the website.

If you want more information about what they offer, what's our next one here?

What do you got there?

We have Cliffwold's Outfitting Company.

So yes, that's what they do.

They're outfitters and they are probably one that

are seeing the impact right now.

And

so you could go on there and explore their website and all their offerings and book your next trip into the wilderness.

So that's a great location to go.

So it's cliffwolds.com.

Again, that's cliffwolds.com.

So check them out.

That'd be a great place to book your next adventure in beautiful, eely soda.

And we know obviously what's going on with the fires and everything, but there are parts of the boundary waters that are opening up a little bit

and we're

hoping for more soon.

So don't give up on this year yet.

You know, maybe you got some vacation time in the fall that you

can still utilize.

Maybe your permit is still active for the remaining of the season and or you're planning for next year's permit openings and things like that.

So keep that in

mind.

to check out all their services.

We're giving you an opportunity to talk about your

Business, if you are local E-Lea business and you want to give us your website, give us a Facebook page, that's fine.

We're gonna get this information out to all of our civic stations over in Southern Wisconsin and Minnesota.

I've seen several different posts online.

People wanna support E-Lea and what's going on.

They realize that it's been a huge financial hit for a lot of businesses because the people aren't here, obviously.

And we've heard many times, Terry, you know it.

It's about three months.

I mean, a lot of the businesses here

make a lot of their yearly income in about a three month spam.

Right.

And we were at the peak.

So June is the start of the season, but June is also kind of cut short because of graduations.

So we really don't see the true influx of tourism traffic until mid June.

And then June is very nice and moderate, but then July hits and July is when it's just.

we just explode.

And so having this hit in July is just- July is

over tomorrow.

Yeah.

I know.

Friday rather than

you.

Yes.

So it's a big hit to the economy.

But I do want to shout out.

We did get a listener tuning in from Southern Wisconsin.

So she's been coming to Ely for 30 years and heartbroken.

But it's happening here.

And she also wanted to do a little shout out to log cabin hideaways.

So yes, there's a little

from Malia.

Yeah, and for some reason you don't get us the info during the show.

You can do it afterwards because I can update the Facebook post, but that'll be a good place to go when the show is done or WEOI Facebook post where we'll put the links to all the sites.

Now we have, this is, this is a really good one for those of you from outside the area who are just like, well, you know, we just visited or we, I can't use a tree service.

This is an art and soul gallery.

This sounds like something can get very unique from Ely,

right?

Okay.

Something that's really unique about Ely is

We have a huge art popular, I mean culture here, very talented on all ends of art.

And so it's just really nice that we have these locations where people can go and showcase their art and make some money.

So yes.

Yeah, so check out the website art and soul gallery www.ealy.org.

ElyArtAndSoul.com.

I want to make sure you get that right.

So www.ElyElyArtAndSoul.com is the website to check out that wonderful business here.

The next one we've got, what is that?

My eyes are failing me here.

Oh, this is in Five Pines Candles.

Five Pines Candles in Five Pines.

Pine's Candle Co.

Okay.

But Heather McGee is a magical, creative soul that creates the most delicious candles and lotions that.

I like the word delicious when you say

a candle.

Okay, I should

go get the lotion.

So I

have the blueberry lotion and the blueberry lotion, it literally is delicious.

It just smells

like, like you're just bathing in blueberry pie.

And also the papaya candle.

It's like a dose of summer.

So I'm, I'm kind of like, do I want to hold off on burning my papaya candle?

So when it's February, I can feel like I'm on a beach somewhere.

But yeah,

she's, she does some beautiful work and she's located too.

Um, and a new location here in LA, she moved into, um, on the top of this hill here in the old pebble spa location.

So she's got a new storefront and lots of different products.

She also is very big on, um,

collaborating with businesses that give back.

So coffee companies that give back and things like that.

So you can visit her website at five pan, five pan, fivepinescandleco.com.

So that's-

Spell out five, yeah.

Yeah, spell out five, spell out pine, spell out candle, and then COCO.

So-

Fivepinescandleco.com.

And she's got it, you can buy-

pretty much everything off of her website, because I have sent a couple of customers by just posting that I love her stuff, that they've gone to her website and bought stuff.

So great time for Christmas presents.

If

you go to that website and you scratch your screen, it's like a scratch and sniff.

Oh, wouldn't that be great?

Yeah, that'd be great.

It's like Craig's bow's super secret.

Yeah.

The microphone that turns into a screen.

Yeah.

All right.

So we're promoting our area businesses that have a website or even a Facebook presence.

Now, even if you're on Facebook and you don't have a lot of your stuff listed on there, we'll still mention you and people can message you through that.

If you don't have that website, but we mentioned the first one.

that they've got your website covered down that very first one we talked about.

So again, the Civic Media app, you can go to WELY and text us any information about your business and website or the physical number again, Terry,

what was that?

218-365-4444.

All right,

we'll talk more in just a moment here on WELY.

They say that more than anything else, relationships with people are what make you feel at home in your town.

Boundary Waters Connect offers programs and services to help connect new and prospective Ely area residents with established

through our Hello Neighbor program, we host social mixers and offer one-on-one coffee dates.

And we invite everyone to attend the regular Meet New Eliyites edition of our Tuesday group gatherings over the noon hour at the Grand Daily Lodge.

Learn more by visiting Boundary Waters Connect at BoundaryWatersConnect.org.

Summer has officially arrived when you smell the homemade waffle cones at Northern Expressions Ice Cream.

One step onto Sheridan Street and suddenly you're craving giant scoops, specialty creations, and flavors you can't find anywhere else.

With more than 35 flavors, including dairy-free options, there's something for everyone.

Go classic or go creatively wild.

Either way, bring your appetite.

Northern Expressions Ice Cream on the corner of Sheridan and First Avenue.

You won't miss the smell and you won't forget the flavor.

What if you could save 50% off your water heating costs just by switching to the 8-hour Interruptible Water Heating Program?

That is a great offer for all Lake Country Power members with a 50-gallon or larger water heater.

You and your family can enjoy hot water and save 50% on costs by using energy-efficient water heating programs.

Visit lakecountrypower.coop or call us at 1-800-421-9959.

This celebration of America's 250th birthday is sponsored by Miller's Roofing and Siding, a family owned and operated company since 1989.

On July 20, 1969,

the world stood still as Apollo 11 reached the lunar surface.

After a tense descent with dwindling fuel, Commander Neil Armstrong radioed back the historic words, the eagle has landed.

Hours later Armstrong stepped onto the dusty soil, declaring it one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

Beside him, Buzz Aldrin saluted the American flag under the dark expanse of space.

That monumental achievement fulfilled a national promise and united humanity in shared wonder.

Apollo 11 did not just win the space race, it permanently redefined the boundaries of human potential, securing America's legacy as a bold pioneer in the exploration of the cosmos.

And now your

latest WELY forecast.

I'm meteorologist Rodney Price.

A warm afternoon in the Northlands will have mostly sunny skies, but hazy conditions as well.

Heat advisory, in effect, highs in the upper 80s, feeling more like lower 90s.

Tonight partly cloudy skies, upper 60s and showers and storms Thursday, currently 80 degrees.

All

right, more with Terry and Joel here.

I'm one of the many transplants into into Ely here for a few days and have been

really enjoying my time.

I'll get a little nighttime walk in around town and check out the college and check out other stuff.

Just a beautiful little treasure you guys have here in Elie.

I know when you live here a long time, like the city I've lived, I live in over in Wisconsin.

I've been there 26 years.

You kind of become numb to it a little bit.

You know,

it's

funny that you say that because going out to the seaplane base, I, I

haven't been out to Seamer's Beach for quite some time and there's just this cute little island in that beach area that you can walk to and then there's this beautiful little wooden bridge and it just made me realize I need to go and explore my little treasures that I have right here instead of just walking the sidewalks.

So yeah, when you do, you become numb to some of the things and

People come here and spend a lot of money to come to our little town.

And how close things are to you.

I always tell people over in the little town of Park Falls I live in, I always tell people you're 60 miles from Lake Superior, you know, the biggest freshwater body in the world.

I said, have you been there?

I went there once as a kid.

Are you kidding me?

Come on, let's go.

So there's so many things that you can take in.

So you've got a treasure here in Ely, no doubt about it.

So we are featuring Ely businesses

We realized many have taken a financial hit with the lightning incident from earlier in July.

So we're taking this and we're going to share this recording and information with all of our civic media stations across the network, which is 20 plus stations and 25.

And we're just going to tell people, hey, if you want to support ELE, here's some websites, here's some Facebook pages for you to do that.

We had a gentleman who does, let's see.

Let's see, I copied and pasted the whole thing, I probably shouldn't have.

But this gentleman lives in Ely, and created a phone app, actually, that lets users set up watches for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area entry points, and a date range, and it'll actually notify you of an opening or cancellation.

So I'm gonna send me his website, it's Permit Pulse.

Dot XYZ.

I believe is a website permit pulse.

That's really cool.

Actually,

you know, the permits are very hard to come by.

And so people are always looking for openings that might come by come up.

So that's a great, the great little tool.

Yeah, that's one thing a lot of people don't realize who don't use the boundary waters.

Right.

It's limited.

One of the thousands of people just roam in and just open up a quick trip on the corner.

I mean, there is regulation, so that could be a very valuable resource, so permit.

pulse.xyz is that website.

And just a little bit here, Maddie Schaefer, one of our Civic News gals is in the area and she's gonna, we'll share an interview she did with a legendary business here in the Ely area.

So we'll share that when we get a little break here a little bit later on in our show.

But again, we're featuring Ely businesses, the Civic Media Text app.

in the Civic Media app for your Android or iPhone, C-I-V-I-C, Civic Media, tap on W-E-L-Y, and text us your website and just tell us what you do, and we'll share it with the world.

You may get one new sale, you may get 500.

I don't know, we're just doing this as kind of came to us yesterday as we saw people from outside the area wanting to support our e-lea businesses.

So we're going to talk a little bit about Firefly Vintage and Goods, which is located here on Sheridan Street in Ely.

They are only on Facebook, but they do have information on there.

And as always, you can message people from their Facebook page, but they have vintage items and goods, and you can email them at elyfireflyvintage at gmail.com.

So Terry being a lifelonger here in Ely probably knows a little bit more than I do about the Firefly Vintage folks.

Oh, yes.

That is a quaint little vintage store that's adjacent with a realty.

They share the same space.

Yeah, that's all right.

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

He has all kinds of cool stuff.

In fact, as an Elyite and third generation.

Is that

what they call it?

Elyite?

Is that correct?

Elyite.

They had some, I went in there with my daughter when she was here visiting and it was so cool to see some of the vintage items from our community.

Like there's insula up on the corner here,

used

to be Vertines Cafe

and

it was Vertines Cafe forever.

And they had the most delicious bakery and it's just, oh yeah, it just was so cool.

They had a menu, they had menus and they had some old matchbooks from,

for teens and there was a bunch of different things that were in there.

So yes, it's a really unique.

David Wigdoll has created a really cute space with all kinds of vintage antiques from all over.

I mean, my daughter found matchboxes from Texas.

So she thought that was cool because that's where she lives.

She was like, oh my gosh, I know this restaurant.

Yeah.

So they have some pictures on their Facebook page if you want to check out.

Firefly Vintage.

Search for that at Facebook, you'll find it.

And you can email them.

And I can always message them to write from Facebook.

Their email is elyfireflyvintage at gmail.com.

You can reach them at 218-343-1797.

My wife and I, when we met, we did antiques.

We have a link.

to antiques and vintage stuff, and we still, to this day, enjoy doing it.

So yeah, I'm gonna have to slip over there

before I leave town.

You should slip over there.

I think you would enjoy it.

Yeah.

So let's talk about another one.

We thank everyone for letting us know about your websites and your places.

Ely Wholesale.

is our next one.com with everything from soup to nuts, they say.

Do you think they really have soup to

nuts?

From looking at their website, I'm pretty sure he's got soup there.

And probably nuts too.

A little bit of everything

there.

A little bit of everything.

Yeah, so go to elewholesale.com for more information.

And it's a nice website.

They have everything laid out there.

I'll let you take the next

one.

You want to take that?

Yes.

Okay.

Let me go pull the.

So we have Stone Catcher Marketing.

I guess it's going to be rebranded here soon to Stone Catcher Consulting.

But what she does is she helps transition small business owners and mission-driven organizations from scrappy to strategic through coaching and consulting.

So from scrap.

be too strategic.

I think that's

kind of catchy.

Scrappy to strategic.

Say that 17 times fast.

So you can find her at stoneketchermarketing.com.

That's stoneketchermarketing.com and her name is Derricka.

I almost said Deborah, but

it's Derricka.

I know it's very unique.

Well, right next door to

the

radio station

here.

You guys, I said this when I walked in, I'm just like,

How did you guys land the location with an ice cream shop right next door?

And much more than that.

But we have Northern Exposure, Northern Exposure.

Actually, there's a business called that in my hometown.

Northern Expressions Gifts and Ice Cream.

And I know when people hear ice cream, a lot of times they just get blind.

They put the blinders on and say, give me ice cream.

But they got a lot more.

She has.

Everything she's got such a unique gift shop with all kinds of cute coffee cups with sayings and beautiful decor She has this beautiful light that I keep eyeing that has trees and it shines so pretty.

I want that really bad Pictures she's got dog items like dog treats and dog collars and bandana type things and she just has some

T-shirts, fun T-shirts with sayings on them that will make you laugh out loud.

A

little taste of Ely.

A little taste of Ely and the ice cream, come on.

The ice cream and the, let's just talk about.

the waffle cones.

Yeah, yeah.

Have you had one yet?

I'm going to.

I have not yet.

I've been holding off because if I know I have one, I'll have another.

Corey, I wonder if he's listening.

I wonder how many he had last

week.

I know I saw him twice.

It's going to be an afternoon treat for me today.

Yeah, tons of flavors.

They make their, and they make the waffle cones right there.

She was in, she was talking about smelling like a waffle cone when she came in the

other day.

She always says that I smell like a waffle cone.

I'm like, that's good as I smell her.

You

come sit here all day, I don't care.

You smell

delicious.

Sarah, you smell

lovely.

So you can go to their Facebook page, Northern Expressions Gifts and Ice Cream Ely, and you can message her if there's something maybe you would like to purchase or maybe a gift card.

You can do it that way too.

That way you got a gift card in hand for, how cool would it be to the person who loves to come up here to the Boundary Waters and looks for and loves Ely.

you know, and they're little stocking stuff or all of a sudden there's a, there's a $50 ice cream certificate for next summer.

They'd be like,

whoa, all

right.

They'd be

like, I'm taking care of for the rest of the summer.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Fantastic.

So Facebook is where to check out Northern Expressions gifts and ice cream of Ely.

And we had the Canadian waters.

They, uh,

give us their website too at canadianwaters.com.

Can you bring that up to give a little information

on that?

I can, let me get there.

All

right, I'm just

making sure.

I've got so many tabs open.

I'm making

sure I just push the right buttons over here on the control

board that

I don't fully understand right now.

But we think canadianwaters.com and if you've got something text us right now on the Free Civic Media app, you can always email info at wely.fm also.

So yeah, Canadian Waters is a prominent outfitter located on Main Street here and what they do is they're your outfitter for the Boundary Waters, but they also have all kinds of gear in there as well from canoe paddles to gifts, t-shirts, all kinds of things.

So yeah, check their website at canadianwaters.com and explore everything that they have to offer.

I'm sure there's many ways you could

Also do gift cards or book a trip or all kinds of fun things like that.

Because they do group trips.

They can do canoe routes, canoe trips and have all that gear.

I also like to highlight, I did get a message silently from somebody.

Timbertrail Lodge in Ealy is on Farm Lake.

That is a beautiful lodge that is also open in the winter months.

So Timbertrail Lodge on Farm Lake.

I had the pleasure of visiting him this winter out there.

And again, talking about things that we take for granted when we live somewhere.

I spent the afternoon and it was a beautiful blue sky winter day.

And I told him, I said, George, literally I drove in and I was like, my stress just vanished.

He does a, what do you call it?

It's like a winter version of bocce ball.

Sort of not bocce

ball.

You throw the wooden things George can probably, if he's listening, be like, Terry, that's what it's called.

But he has a fish house out there and chairs that you can sit with little fire pits on the ice.

It's just magical.

It's

just a

really peaceful place to go.

And they'll have the chickadees.

He'll be put his hand out and chickadees will come in.

feed out of his hand.

So TimbertrailLodge.com is where you can go to Timbertrail.com is where you can find him.

He's also got a very active social media platform as well that he shares a lot of videos so you can get a glimpse of life at Farm Lake in Ely,

Minnesota.

And all these businesses we mentioned, you know, if you're able

to support them now, it would be wonderful because they're going through some tough times, a lot of these places are.

So, you know, maybe you could book something for next year or this winter or buy a gift certificate for someone else to use it or whatever it may be.

That's sort of the purpose of this show is to give people an opportunity to give Ely some love from outside of the

year.

Great.

It's a great way to book your next day.

Yeah.

You know, if you're like, I used my vacation this year, but I think I want to put Ely on the map next year for a vacation.

Book that stay this year for next year or buy a gift to stay for a family member who might want to get out away for something.

But another one too that messaged me privately was Lakeview Lodge on Shagua Lake.

They're another one.

I have to pull up their website because I want to make sure I get it right.

You know, I don't want to miss.

Lakeview Lodge.

Okay.

LakeviewLodgeElyMin.com.

So quaint little resort with cabins that are right on Chagua Lake.

Like your deck is water right below you.

So

that's a very quaint little location.

There's just not a bad place in Ely, but unfortunately you had to tell us to tell you.

I could sit here all day and promote Ely.

Literally.

I love this community.

I'm very fortunate to have

been born and raised here and then also have raised my children here too.

So, which they both say, thank you for bringing us to Ealy.

We were

from Mississippi, that's where they started their little lives and came to Ealy and my daughter was like, where are the big bows?

And she said the other thing, big bows and why do they talk so funny?

Cause we didn't have the, you know, she came with a little bit of a drawl and she quickly lost the drawl.

She quickly lost the draw.

I can roll a Southern draw, though.

Oh, we always over there.

We're close to the UP, for

sure.

Oh yeah, you gotta talk to UP.

Yeah, we

always talk like that,

for

sure.

We have a little visitor outside.

I saw a little person come in.

Oh,

okay.

Yeah, thank

you.

With ice cream cone

in hand?

I don't know.

I didn't see any ice cream.

We're going to continue with more.

If you are an Ely business and you want to promote your website or Facebook page to those outside the Ely area, message us on the face on the.

Civic Media app or the physical number again.

Two, one, eight, three, six, five, four, four, four, four.

We're gonna come back on the other side of this with a few more if we get any more.

But yesterday, Maddie Schaefer, one of our Civic Media news gurus, she caught up with a gentleman from, give me a quick intro of the business that she talked to.

Canadian waters.

Canadian waters and kind of the history of that business.

So let's listen in on that interview that Maddie had with the owner

the history of Canadian waters.

Can you first tell me your full name and your official title?

Well my name is Dan Waters and my title I guess is owner of Canadian waters and started the business back in 1964.

So I've been

at

it a

while.

Yeah.

So can you tell me a little bit about the services that you provide?

Basically we're a canoe offending business with a retail store.

So in cooling, gift items, fishing tackle, paddles, camping gear, and offending we rent canoes, camping gear.

People that need everything is applying with complete offending, which is food canoes.

Yeah,

and how important would you say the summer months are for you as a business

crucial We used to be open year round back in the 60s That's when the mines were still open the elite was like sixty five hundred or sixty seven hundred people and with the decline in population

This is not a new business in the wintertime for an outfit.

So the summer business is make or break, you know.

It's from May to September or so.

It's the only time we have, you know, we have

income coming in.

Yeah, and with that, like, I'm sure tourism during this time of the year is huge for you as well.

Oh, it's all about tourism.

You know, it's a time that the fires broke out as the absolute peak of the tourist season.

That's what I heard from other businesses as it started right at the time where usually everybody starts falling in.

Yeah.

Yeah, so we're now going on a few weeks of these wildfires going.

How has that been impacting your business?

That's probably, basically brought it to a halt.

We have no parties in the woods right now because all the entry points are closed.

To try to talk people into coming up and going out someplace that isn't the boundary waters, it's a tough self.

Most people don't want to do that.

It's quite a good part being closed too.

There was no kind of business right

now.

And to kind of put in that fat into a perspective, are you seeing less visitors?

Has it been impactful financially wise?

Well,

financially wise, it's a disaster for everybody.

I don't care what business you have, if you cut off the major source of your business,

for a good share of your season, it's going to have a huge impact on

everybody.

Day-to-day operations, like have you had to cut back with your hours or?

Well, we've cut back on our hours, we've cut back on our staff.

Basically, in that's the case of most tourist businesses in the evening.

If they haven't closed completely,

They're certainly cut way back on the number of hours they're here.

And mostly, then, it's just answering the telephone, taking cancellations for troops down the line somewhere.

Yeah.

And so the most recent thing that we've heard is that they're talking about partially opening part of the boundary waters.

Is that making you a little bit hopeful?

that things may improve?

A little bit, but it's not going to make up for what's been lost.

It won't even come close.

When you take the heart out of something, basically opening it back up in a few little areas, and for you,

The vast majority of the area that are opening isn't even close to here.

It's over on the government.

So that doesn't help either at all.

At this point in time, yeah, opening up the areas can help a little.

But we've lost, and I'm sure everybody in town is the same as us.

We've lost a ton of business that weren't even due to come up until August or September.

Because there's been so much news items about how horrible the fires have been, that people say, hey, we're not going to try it this year.

Even if they open it up, we're not coming.

Yeah.

So that has future impacts as well.

Oh, absolutely.

Setbacks.

What would it take

for you as a business to kind of rebound from this?

There's some businesses probably that won't.

There's

a lot of businesses that just are not going to be able to make it through something like this without help from the government.

And who knows if that's ever going to happen

or not.

And then for people who are

Thinking about visiting Ely, what would you like to say to them if they're debating on whether to come up here or not?

Right now, to be honest, I have no idea whether the area where they're going to be going out of will be open or not.

The Forest Service talks about opening up some areas on the 30th of this month.

The areas they're talking about, I'm going to be a trap in the bucket for Ely.

It's not going to make any difference.

And maybe later on, they'll be able to open up some areas.

But number one, they'll never make up what we've lost.

And eventually, I'm sure they'll open the whole area up.

And that will be a help.

There's no way to ever make up for the loss of the town

suffered.

Mandy Schaefer catching up with Canadian Waters, a historic business, Terry here in Ely, and really with some really matter of fact truths about what's going on in the city.

Definitely.

There is, again, he commented, even if they open up, we're not gonna make up what we lost.

And that's a huge, huge,

impact and there's going to be businesses that might not recover from this and that is the heartbreaking story behind all of this is just that it's just going to be tough.

It's going to be a really, really difficult year for our ELE businesses in 2026 and even as we look into 2027 because we do rely on basically two seasons.

There's two seasons that ELE relies on.

We have the shoulder seasons but

Fall is beautiful here.

That's a great, I kind of think of summer goes into winter for us.

And, but winter, we also rely on the snow and the ice conditions to propel tourism for ice fishing and snowmobiling.

You know, one good thing that we have had happen here in the past, I don't even know how many years, but ATV's trails are a big, huge source of

extra revenue in the fall season.

So people transition, you can start seeing it right about now where people start kind of putting the boats aside and they start pulling out the side by sides and they start doing them a lot more side by side writing and things like that.

So I encourage people to think like that, you know, if you're thinking about what you can do, if you want to come up to Ely and you have a side by side, there's 100.

hundreds of miles, not hundreds, but probably hundreds of miles of trails to navigate and explore on your side by side and get dirty

and get

muddy.

But that's a great fall activity to add to the calendar.

And we're thankful for that because that has been a addition to our fall

Tourism Revenue Stream.

It's

very unique about Ely for those of you who may be listening back to the recording of this and don't know, Ely people know it is.

It's a blend of two perfect worlds because you can go up to the boundary waters and you can camp and you can do all the rough neck and you want up there.

But then you can come back in some of the finest dining and best shops because, oh, I've had some brand of Hawaiian burger last night that was wonderful.

The dining is wonderful.

So if you're, if you're, yeah, you like to rough it, but then maybe you like to have still a little fancy dinner at night or just go down to the cafe.

It's all right here.

Even one of the incident command professionals said they didn't know what they said the food they have had here

has just been

phenomenal.

Like the

flavor palette

has just been phenomenal.

And we take that for granted.

You know, we do have a very

a wide variety of cuisine.

I mean, from Insula, from Boundary Waters Kitchen, what he's doing up there, he's bringing in things that we've never had in Ely, you know, some of the different flavors that just don't happen here, and he's bringing them to that kitchen.

So yeah, we do have, we have good food.

And you got a place called the Frisky Otter too.

No place like

Otter.

No

place like no otter.

So even

if you've never been to Ely and you're never coming to Ely and you're hearing this, go to the frisky outer Facebook page and get a shirt.

I

mean, really cause

people, yeah, their shirts are cool.

That's the other thing.

We have a lot of cool.

swag in t-shirts and things like that from businesses and such.

Got

a few already.

I'm taking back.

There's also a lot of versions of the fire t-shirts.

So Pengals Basswood Trading has a fire t-shirt that they designed and so did Dirty Dog Manufacturing who does our blueberry arts t-shirt and they did one and they sold out

and

that was pretty cool.

That was, you know, they planned for being the official blueberry t-shirt and then

everything happened and they pivoted and they ended up doing quite well.

And that's a testament to what people want to do for Ely.

They're like, okay, well, we're just going to buy all the t-shirts

then.

I believe

they're dropping theirs, their design this week.

I don't know girls, you're listening.

Text me in, because I know they listen every day in the shop down there.

So

final few moments, the Civic Media app you can text us or the physical number again, Terry is.

Two, one, eight, three, six, five, four, four, four, four.

And we'll do a final few shout outs to anybody who gets us their info here in just a moment here on WELY.

For 50 years, Friends of the Boundary Waters has brought people together in support of wilderness.

Through its No Boundaries program, hundreds of students from across the Iron Range connect with the boundary waters through their immersive outdoor education, while community programs help build a thriving future.

Join them on Saturday, August 22nd, for the Community Benefit Bike Ride, starting at the Trailhead Building in Ealy.

Choose from two routes.

The long ride begins at 8 a.m.

and the short course rolls out at 9 a.m.

Enjoy food trucks, great company, and a day of giving back.

Proceeds will support local nonprofits investing in our community during this challenging wildfire season.

Schools out!

It's time to ditch the schedules and screens and give your son room to grow.

Camp Voyager on the edge of the Boundary Waters fills the summer with fun and adventure through land and water sports coupled with overnight camping trips.

Boys build responsibility, confidence and independence.

Experiential education meets the great outdoors at Camp Voyager where

What a

lovely day on the water.

You got to take the boat out for a spin.

The kids had a

blast.

Dad, wait!

What's wrong,

kiddo?

We forgot to clean, drain, and dry the boat.

We can't be a family that spreads aquatic invasive

species.

Do your part to preserve Minnesota's 10,000 lakes.

Remember to clean, drain and dry your boats, trailers and gear every time to stop the spread of AIS.

This PSA is brought to you by Wildlife Forever and St.

Louis County.

Arrowhead Outdoors.

Proud to announce they have been voted Minnesota's best for five years running, and they have the largest selection of premium live bait in Ely, including jumbo leeches, redworms, angle worms, night crawlers, and green crawlers, and plus a 24-hour vending machine stock with leeches, crawlers, and essential tackle for your after-hours fishing needs.

Be sure to follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and X. Open seven days a week, 5 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

Gear up and get on the bike at Arrowhead Outdoors.

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