A History of Incredible Ely By Somrock and Brownell.
A history of Ely, MN following the early years of the fur trade and the Civil War, advanced at such breakneck speed that records of events, conditions and people left many gaps of continuity. What is contained has been gleaned from the files of old newspapers, mining industry journals and logging company records along with stories, many times retold, miners, lumberjacks, trappers, prospectors, guides, Indians, in conversation with early immigrants and first generation American's whose parents and grandparents came from Europe to work in the iron mines and to cut the virgin timber of Northeast Minnesota.