Spirit of the Wilderness is a family owned business. Steve, Kathy and Ginny offer you the expertise and enthusiasm that comes with over 30 years of canoeing and outfitting in the BWCA and Quetico.
Our reputation, quality equipment, and educational approach to outfitting are some of the reasons people give for booking our services. We’ve introduced many folks to their first taste of the Northwoods – and watched as they develop skills to go it alone – but they keep using our services, year after year.
We invite you to explore the BWCA or Quetico and allow Spirit of the Wilderness to outfit your needs. Visit our website for more information on Canoe Rentals, Guided Trips, Live Bait, Tackle & Gear.
Gracie’s Garden is an entirely woman-owned and locally-operated garden center in Ely, Minnesota. Founded in 2011 by Kathy Cyriacks, we are one of the largest growers of organic herbs in Northeastern Minnesota. Every year our greenhouses are filled with organic, heirloom tomatoes and vegetable starts, flowering annuals, and perennials.
Nursery stock (trees and shrubs) and ornamental edibles such as raspberries, currants, blueberries, and strawberry plants are available each spring/summer/fall. You’ll find a wide array of organic fertilizers, pots, and garden tools in the potting shed.
Our gift shop is filled with garden-centric gifts, pillows, napkins, tools, rain chains, soaps, books, chimes, garden art, and wrought iron metal garden structures.
Portage North and Sundog Sport, formerly Kondos Outdoors, was born in Ely, in 1980 out of a need of the outfitters to have gear that could withstand the rigors of being on trail all season long. With a roll of fabric, some thread, and the determination to craft the best gear, began the course for the next 40 years.
I grew up venturing into the Boundary Waters from age three and spent much of my formative years exploring the Ely wilderness. In 2017, I married my wife, Corissa, who had been guiding BWCA trips for seven years and has been the director of Rock Ridge Christian Camp since 2015. We enjoy being able to take our personal experiences and knowledge and incorporate that into how we design and build products for Sundog Sport.
By bringing in state-of-the-art cutting and sewing equipment, implementing continuous improvement philosophies, researching the best materials, and having a 1.4 million acre test lab to vet our products, we strive to craft for you the toughest gear that will last you and the next generation a lifetime.
Serena’s Carpet Shop is Ely’s flooring specialist with a retail showroom downtown. We install flooring, carpet, tile, natural stone, hard wood, laminate, luxury vinyl tile, vinyl, and custom showers.
Visit our showroom today!
We offer custom screen printing and embroidery! Our full time artist on staff can digitize your design or create a new design for you.
We have been providing high quality silk screening and embroidery services for over 25 years in Ely.
Raven Productions Inc. is an independent publisher in Ely, Minnesota. Our mission is to encourage children and grown-ups to explore, enjoy, and protect the natural world and share experiences with one another through story-telling, writing, and art.
Raven Productions was established in 1995 with the production of The Ely Summer Times, a small magazine with articles about the Ely area, its people and history, a calendar of events, and all the information needed for tourists and residents to make the most of their visit or life in Ely. The Times became popular enough to expand to two editions per year in 1997. We added the Boundary Waters & Quetico Calendar in 1999, and published our first book in 2003. We now publish several books each year and distribute a few carefully select titles from other publishers.
We support our local economy, keeping our business expenditures as close to northern Minnesota as possible and dealing with other small, independent businesses. Nearly all our printing is done in Minnesota.
Our books are made with sturdy, high quality paper for durability. Our paperbacks are perfect bound and our hardcover books have library quality binding. We believe books are meant to be handed down from one generation to another, so we build ours to last.
Family-owned retailer and manufacturer specializing in outdoor apparel such as coats, jackets, tops, pants & shorts for all ages.
“Our mission is to design and make quality outdoor clothing inspired by Minnesota’s Boundary Waters and other wild places. We strive to build community by relying on local labor, paying livable wages and giving generously. We design, cut and sew all of our clothing right on the main street of Ely, MN.”
Please see our website for more information, product selection and updated hours!
Kekekabic Studios has extensive experience in Art Glass Creation and Restoration. Rosemary Shepherd and John Bowe are craftspeople living and working in Ely, Minnesota. Stained glass creation, restoration, and fine woodworking have been their life’s passions.
They learned their craft through traditional studio apprenticeships and hands-on training.
They have done work all over the country and have been fortunate to have restored some very significant windows. Some examples that stand out are “The Gift of the Magi” by Maitland Armstrong, Faith Chapel, Jekyll Island, Georgia, and The Fox Memorial Window, by Louis C. Tiffany, Kelsey Museum, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Kekekabic Studios is the culmination of their 30+ years in the stained glass business. Their love of the wilderness brought them from Michigan to northeastern Minnesota, where they have relocated and set up their showroom and workshop on Chapman Street in beautiful downtown Ely, Minnesota.
When they aren’t busy in their workshop, you will find them exploring this extraordinary place: hiking, camping, and occasionally paddling out to their favorite, Kekekabic Lake (and the namesake of the business), in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Established in 2000‚ and based in Ely‚ Minnesota at the edge of The Boundary Waters Wilderness Area‚ our record label, Spiritwood Music, was formed to produce acoustic music that is still pure and true and always respectful of its roots (which are as diverse as you can get). American roots music blends styles and rhythms and traditions from around the world – a great patchwork quilt of sound. And just like the components of a hand-made quilt‚ all the pieces of this sound vary as much as the people and scenery of our country – but they join together to create something warm and wonderful that covers us all. Spiritwood Music is America’s music…the sound of where we came from‚ where we are going‚ and who we are….
P.O. Box 179 3828 S. HWY 169
Ely, MN 55731
