Tap to enlargeThe Front Door to Ely
A brass band plays, children weave through the crowd and a steam locomotive idles beside the depot’s ELY sign. Before highways reached the North Woods, nearly everyone and everything arriving in Ely came through this building.
Date and occasion unknown. If you recognize this day, we’d love to hear from you.
- 1884The Duluth & Iron Range runs its first timetable
- 1888Rails reach Ely, the year the town incorporates
- 1901U.S. Steel’s directors inspect the line at Ely
- 1938The road becomes the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range
History
The railroad made Ely. In 1888 the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad pushed its Chandler extension from Tower Junction to the new mining town, the same year Ely was incorporated. Iron ore rolled south to the docks at Two Harbors, and passengers, mail and freight came and went through this depot.
For decades the depot was the front door to Ely. Agents, telegraphers and freight crews worked its offices, steel executives stepped off private cars on its platform, and crowds turned out with a brass band to meet the trains. The building later changed hands and changed looks, from white clapboard to stucco to dark wood siding, and in later years it was home to Wilderness Outfitters.
The Project
Our newest project brings Ely’s historic railroad depot back to life. We restored the siding, windows, trim and signature roof brackets, bringing the building back to the look seen in its earliest photographs.
The depot is being readied for new tenants, giving one of Ely’s most storied buildings a new chapter on the edge of downtown.
A Depot for a Boom Town
Ely grew up fast. The Chandler Mine opened, the railroad arrived in 1888 and the town incorporated that April. A mining town needed a proper station, and the Duluth and Iron Range built one: a long, low hip-roofed building with deep, bracketed eaves to shelter the platform and a second story rising over the agent’s office.
This rare construction photo shows the building in its frame stage, with a crew of carpenters, some still holding their saws and hammers, stopping work to pose for the camera.
Inside the Agent’s Office
Depot agent James Moonan stands at the back of the office in this 1901 photograph, with railroad official Horace Johnson seated in front of him. Johnson would go on to serve as president of the Duluth and Iron Range.
Pigeonhole mail sorters, ledgers, a clerk at the tall writing desk and a lamp hanging over the counter: this was the nerve center of Ely’s link to the outside world, where tickets were sold, freight was billed and train orders came in by telegraph.
Meet the Depot Crew
Someone wrote the crew’s names on the back of this 1915 postcard, left to right:
- 1Geo. Moonan
- 2John Pluth
- 3Vern McCarty
- 4Frank Schweiger
- 5Archie Bonnier
How the Depot Changed
The building has worn several faces over the years. Our restoration brings back the clapboard siding and bracketed eaves of the early photographs. Tap any photo to see it larger.
From Iron Ore to Outfitters
- 1884
The Duluth & Iron Range opens
The railroad issues its first timetable, running ore, freight and passenger trains the 68 miles between Two Harbors and Tower. The trip takes five hours and ten minutes.
- 1888
The rails reach Ely
The Chandler extension links Tower Junction to Ely, and on April 23 the town incorporates. The name was a second choice: the first, Florence, was already taken by a settlement two miles away.
- 1901
Big steel comes to town
James Moonan runs the depot as agent. That year, directors of the newly formed United States Steel Corporation arrive at Ely with officers of the D&IR and the Duluth, Missabe & Northern on their first inspection trip over the two railroads.
- 1909
Train No. 2 to Duluth
Train No. 2 prepares to depart Ely for Duluth, its observation car finished with an ornate railing at the back.
- 1911
A busy rail yard
Sidings, switch stands and a tall mine structure crowd the yard, a sign of how much iron ore was moving out of Ely.
- 1930
A new operator
The Duluth, Missabe & Northern leases the Duluth & Iron Range and takes over its operations.
- 1938
The Missabe Road
The two railroads are merged into the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway, the name the depot would carry for decades.
- 1955
The paper trail
A warranty deed conveys Lot 4, Block 4 of the South Chandler Addition to Ely from United States Steel Corporation to the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway for $600.
- Later
Wilderness Outfitters
After the trains, the depot became home to Wilderness Outfitters, an Ely outfitter “serving the sportsman since 1921,” with its shield hung on the depot wall and gear warehouses stretching out behind.
- Today
Our newest project
Alley A Realty restores the depot’s siding, windows, trim and roof brackets and readies it for its next chapter.
Gateway to the Boundary Waters
From canoe trips to lake boats, Wilderness Outfitters sent generations of anglers and paddlers into the North Woods. A few favorites from the outfitter’s photo collection.
More From the Archives
Tap any photo to see it larger.
Before We Started
The depot and its long outfitter warehouses as we found them, and the depot restored today.
Sources: Robert Balach, A History of the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railroad; historical photographs from local collections and the Remember Ely and Winton Minnesota community; St. Louis County property records. Historic photos are shown as found, and some dates are approximate.
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