The International Wolf Center, home of the most-visited wolf exhibition ever, is here. So is the world's longest-running wolf research projects, still under way by biologist L. David Mech. On any given day talk to loggers or truckers or delivery workers and you'll hear first-hand accounts of wolf sitings. Some state biologists believe this area might have the highest wolf density in North America, thanks to a steady diet of deer instead of less nutritious moose, elk or caribou. Wolves seem to be everywhere in Ely, literally and figuratively.
Wolves are the topic of continual coffee shop and barroom banter.
But Ely has a stormy, love-hate relationship with wolves. It's an area where deer hunters complain of seeing more wolf tracks than whitetails, where car and snowmobile drivers have gone out of their way to hit wolves, and where wolves have been found shot. Yet this is also where tourists spend thousands of dollars to trek into the woods just to see a fresh wolf track, a deer carcass or maybe hear wolves howl. On Wednesday some 300 Ely-area residents overflowed the basement of the Ely Community Center to talk about wolves. And while some people asked for understanding, compassion and cooler heads in the building debate over the predator's future, much of the crowd wanted blood.