The Ely Miner

HOTEL PROJECT FOR ELY.

A few short years ago the new hotel project was a dream-an idea-but the dream is in the making and coming true. The castle is materializing day by day and in a few weeks more the steam shovel will be playing its part and soon thereafter the Grand Opening of Ely's new hostelry.

The advancement of a given period is always proportionate to its setbacks. Ely's new hotel will be a mighty factor in the future of our city. It will mark the beginning of real progress and genuine advancement.

Progress never quits. Fortune smiles on those who look and cease confusing opportunity with impossibility.

Deeds are the spawn of needs. These are great days and it's a wonderful privilege to share them.

If you are not a dreamer you are not Progressive.

Your subscription for your reasonable share of Hotel Bonds will be appreciated.

HOTEL COMMITTEE.

Above is the appeal of the Hotel Committee to the citizens of Ely to come to the front for the up building of the City and making of it a better place in which to live. The committee is right. A hotel, such as contemplated will mean the salvation of this city as a tourist center and also of the winter housing proposition.

Ely is recognized as the best city on the ranges and the only black eye we have at the present time is the scarcity of hotel facilities.

This does not mean that we have no hotels, on the contrary, those we do have are models in that line.

However, they are too small for the travel we enjoy. During the entire season last summer, people were running around town nights looking for rooms and several utilized the vacant cells at the jail for sleeping quarters in lieu of driving through to Virginia, Hibbing or Duluth or being sent to the overcrowded Winton, Burntside and other resorts in this vicinity.

The proposition now stands: Ely is expected to buy $50,000 worth of stock in the new hotel. Last year this amount was subscribed by 150 public spirited citizens. Considering that we have a population of 6,000 people and this population is growing by leaps and bounds, it would indeed be a mockery to believe that the paltry sum of $50,000 will stand in the way of the city having one of the finest small hotels in the northwest.

Every citizen should be interested in this improvement. One thousand people taking stock to the amount of $50 each will make up the total required. Out of the 6,000 population there surely should be 1,000 who have the welfare of the city at heart. This is not saying that 1,000 will do this, but the logic is good, and there probably are a considerable number who will take a whole lot more and make up what the others lack.

Jacobson Bros., one of the northwest's most responsible firms of contractors and builders, whose work speaks for their competent fulfillment of any contract they undertake, will erect the building and furnish the necessary cash for its completion.

Mr. and Mrs. McGugen, who have been here and looked over the city and its surroundings are willing to furnish the building at a cost of between $15,000 and $17,000 besides subscribing to $5,000 worth of the stock in the enterprise in return for their management of the new hotel.

The McGugens are of the best and have made a success of every hotel they have managed.

When outsiders come to the front with such assistance and confidence in the enterprise, why should people here in Ely, whose property is benefited by every improvement made, be it public or private, hesitate to come in with a few dollars to make out the necessary whole. Ely is a city good for years to come. As proof of this we cite the contemplated improvements at the Pioneer mine which will run into an enormous cost and other improvements at other mines which are destined to increase the life of the city by at least 50 years. Then there is the tourist proposition which has grown to immense proportions and which would double itself yearly with necessary accommodations for the care of this "gold-mine" new business.

A considerable howl was made on the hotel proposition put up to the citizens a year ago, (mostly by those who failed to subscribe) that the building was too large for this city.

We will admit, right here, that the business places in the new building is what murdered it but at the time it was thought that a few stores would help out on the rent during the lean months of the year. The building now contemplated will be a 60 or 70 room affair and the business places have been eliminated to a bare necessity-such small institutions as are located in all first class hotels.

Ely has a surplus of store rooms and business places such as they are. The good stores are few and can be numbered on the fingers of your hands. There are a large number of small affairs who eke out a precarious existence in any manner possible. We need no more of these.

It is not very nice for a newspaper to send out this kind of news, but we could do worse. You know it, and we know it. Were it not for the large number of empty buildings, we would say that Ely could lose 25 or more of these places and not feel the loss. Hence, new store rooms only add to the surplus. At present, every man wishing work is employed here.

Our mines are year around propositions and stable business all the time, winter and summer. The pay days are as regular as clockwork and we are not overburdened with a surplus of population for which there is no employment. We have more home owners than any town in the northwest.

Superintendent Trezona of the Oliver Company informed us a few days ago that the "A" shaft of the Pioneer would be entirely remodeled this winter. The shaft is to be concreted up to about 50 feet of the surface, with concrete stations, pump houses and other underground necessities.

This will require an immense amount of labor, steel and cement and a considerable amount of money. This also indicates that the mine warrants the expenditures and that the changes are necessary to prolong the life of the Pioneer.

With a normal life, figured on yearly shipments of 50 years, it is somewhat of a question how much the new improvement will add. This is speaking only of the Pioneer and we have the Zenith, Sibley and Chandlers, besides hundreds of acres of prospective development.

When the hotel committee calls on you, talk the matter over with them and then dig down for as much of the stock as you can carry. This is figured as a gilt-edged investment and with sure returns. It has been figured to a nicety and the men who are putting up the larger part of the money are enthusiastic over the prospects. Every dollar invested in new buildings here adds just that much to the value of other property in the city. We have the city, we have the people and we also have the money if it only can be coaxed out of its hiding places.

We deserve the new hotel building and must have it in order to hold up our end of the immense tourist traffic in this direction.

The mines are good; the Superior National Forest is a valuable asset with its timber supply on a sustained yield basis; the lakes are a drawing card and the whole, coupled with the climate we have; the lack of storms, tornadoes, hot nights and such other deterrent freaks of nature, make this section indeed the 'Playground of a Nation'.

Outsiders see this, while we, totally surrounded with all this all the year fail to appreciate what we have here at home and what others come miles for and spend large amounts to acquire.

With the establishment of a golf course practically assured, we need the hotel to cater to the class of tourists who are golf bugs. With our excellent skating rinks, ski and toboggan slides, snowshoe and dog team country in the winter months, the hotel is a necessity to complete the work of making this both a summer and winter playground. Thousands of people are looking for this class of winter entertainment and we have it here, all but the hotel.

We could write reams about this but will suffice with the statement that as can be seen above an effort will be made to build a hotel in this city and your help is needed.