Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Ely, MN

Ely is a city in St. Louis County, Minnesota, on the Vermilion Iron Range within the Superior National Forest, just 16 miles south of the Canadian border.

Ely began in 1888 as the town of Florence, named for the daughter of Chandler Mine captain Jack Pengilly, and was renamed Ely for mining executive Samuel B. Ely, who financed the railroad to town but is not known to have ever visited it.

Mining started with the Chandler Mine in 1888, and the Pioneer Mine, opened in 1889, went on to produce 41 million tons of ore — about 40% of the Vermilion Range's entire output — before closing in 1967; its surface plant, on the National Register of Historic Places, now houses the Ely Arts & Heritage Center.

The population of Ely was 3,268 at the 2020 census, with 1,615 households — far below its mining-era peak of 6,156 residents in 1930.

Ely is one of the nation's best-known wilderness gateways, serving as a principal entry point for canoeists and campers heading into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Canada's Quetico Provincial Park.

The International Wolf Center and the North American Bear Center, both devoted to education about Minnesota's wild predators, are located in and around Ely.

Ely's main street, Sheridan Street, is lined with nature outfitters, outdoor clothing stores, and restaurants serving the summer tourist trade.

Ely is famous for brutal cold: on February 13, 2021, the city set a daily record low of -50 degrees Fahrenheit, and its winters can stretch from October into April.

Today Ely's economy rests largely on tourism rather than mining, although a proposed Twin Metals copper-nickel mine upstream of the Boundary Waters has made the city the center of a long national fight over mining near the wilderness.

Ely's first school opened in 1889 with 112 pupils in a small frame building on Second Avenue.