This newsletter is a summary of March 2025 speakers and updates. My apologies for the late publishing. March and April are travel months for our family and are our respite times after long Minnesota winters. Thank you for your understanding.
Updates
President Update - Tom Moore - 3/12/2025
Drafting the 25 -26 budget for board review.
Lindsay attended president elect training
Fundraising - Two main events - The Rose Sale headed by Angela Campbell and Casino Night co-chaired by Tom and Cathy Coombe.
Casino Night will be Friday, August 13.
Inviting chairs for the different committees needed.
If you have an interest in an area please let Tom or Cathy know.
Dominican Republic International Water Project - Seeking property owner permission to install the well. Rotary members will be visiting in April. Another trip will be coordinated in the fall.
Lisa Ledel has volunteered to help coordinate RYLA for high school students.
Greg Buckley, President of Frandsen Bank has joined the board.
Approved $100 donation to the All Night Graduation Party as a Silver Sponsor.
Jeff Sundell attended a district grant writing two day session in Walker. He graciously volunteered to pay his own way.
3/19 - Lindsay Przybylski updated members on the President Elect Training she attended. Eleven people from our district attended, Approximately 120 people total were there. Lindsay said she learned a lot, met many great people, and it made her look forward to becoming President Elect. She hopes to be able to attend next year too to absorb even more.
Susan needs someone to help her with Youth Exchange as a club counselor who could step in if Susan is not available. Contact Susan if interested.
Other updates:
3/5/2025 - Ward Nelson presented Cathy Coombe with The Paul Harris Fellow certificate and pin. This acknowledges individuals who contribute, or who have contributions made in their name, of $1,000 to The Rotary Foundation.
3/5/2025 - The 50/50 drawing was $447. Lisa Ledel won the chance again to draw the winning card, but did not win. There are 20 cards left and the pot moves forward to the next meeting.
3/19/2025 - The 50/50 drawing was up to $470. Joe Owens won the change to draw the wining card but did not win. The pot continues to carry to the next meeting.
We celebrated Greg Buckley and Pat Warner's birthdays.
First thank you to Ely Rotary for helping to purchase archery equipment for the Ely Archery Club 4-5 years ago. The club is still using the equipment and has been very successful, even going to Nationals and hosting a meet.
Ken moved to Ely in 1978 and has experienced multiple trips into the BWCA. Today's trip is about a trip in 2006 to Hudson Bay with a friend he met when he moved here.
Ken did not have whitewater paddling experience. He had practiced on the St. Louis River by Cloquet. This trip had about 100 whitewater rapids to navigate.
They left on July 8 and paddled about 500 miles. They were on the water 28 days with 27 days of paddling. They put in 14- 16 hour days rising at 5:00 and setting up camp each night.
There are two First Nation villages along the way they visited, Fort Hope and Fort Albany.
Fishing was fantastic especially below rapids, walleye, northern and brook trout. It was a main meal on the trip to save weight in packs. When it was time to stop for the day they had their meal within 10 minutes of fishing.
They saw one moose and two caribou, a couple of eagles and several black bears, mink, otters, muskrats. Ken thought they would see more large wildlife like moose every day or even a polar bear.
There is hardly any development along the rivers other than the two villages as there are not roads built. There are many camp sites that indigenous people use for fishing trips but no maintained sites along the river. In the winter they used ice roads but climate change has made ice roads less dependable. Bogs don't always freeze.
They don't have use restrictions up there like we do so there are old motors, gas cans, metal food containers, anything that was no longer needed was left along the river.
There is no regular Hudson Bay River traffic except a barge in the spring and fall. There was a bootlegger with a 24 foot canoe and 60 horse motor who went to Moose City to pick up hooch weekly. That was how he made his living.
Ken shared stories of the lifestyle and policing which is quite different than in the states. He shared stories about close calls that could have been trip stoppers. They came out of them wet, bumped and bruised and with a dent in the canoe, but okay. He wrote a book about the trip called Singing Water.
There are areas where the river widens out and you can see five miles down river.
Ken did 40 years of BWCA guiding in the summer when he was off from his teaching job in Ely Schools.
Thank you to Ken for sharing this story of adventure. He writes for the Ely Echo with more stories of his expeditions in the wilderness. Most of his books sold out and are no longer available unless you can find them used. Catchin' Fish and Other Mishaps is still available at the Ely Echo and Piragis Bookstore.
3/19/2025 - Speaker - Mary Palcich Keyes and Joe Palcich - Hibbing Historical Society
Joe and Mary are board members of the Hibbing Historical Society.
Mary and Joe told the story of the history of mining on the Iron Range. Information about the background of the meninvolved, how the land purchases were made, the difficulty in creating railroads and mines in the area because of harsh conditions and distance to move the iron ore for processing.
The main person covered today was Charlemagne Tower who the City of Tower is named after.
He had his beginnings as an attorney purchasing land in Pennsylvania that held coal. Making his fortunes in coal mining.
He was involved in the development of railroads and mining in Minnesota. He eventually sold to Rockefeller-backed Minnesota Mining and Railroad Syndicate.
The mountains of difficulty scaled to bring mining to life in this area would have been daunting to most but the men in this story started the mining of our history working through monumental obstacles.
This was a long story that was fascinating. Out of the interest of this newsletter's length, I suggest visiting the Hibbing Historical Society and the Tower Historical Society for more information.
Thanks to Joe and Mary for sharing their research with us.
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