New Elyites not just retirees

Tuesday Group welcomes five area residents, all still at work

The Tuesday Group’s popular “Meet New Elyites” series has clearly evolved over time.

In its roughly decade of existence, the Tuesday Group has been introduced to new area residents more often from a couple times per year to presentations now held quarterly or more frequently.

The makeup of the featured residents has also changed over time, going from almost exclusively retirees to many who have come here for new jobs or brought their jobs with them.

That was the case Tuesday, as a new resident and two couples who have recently come to the area, shared their stories at Grand Ely Lodge.

Grace Klein, along with Tim Mattamore and Johanna Scarlet, and Ryan Olson and Joanne Pollman, have taken up residence here but not as retirees.

Klein, a sewer and designer at Ely’s Wintergreen Northern Wear, told the audience “I’ve been visiting Ely and the surrounding Boundary Waters area for basically my whole life.”

She spent time and worked at Camp Du Nord and came to Ely and Wintergreen after graduating with a degree in fashion and textile design from the University of Wisconsin, at Madison.

“It’s pretty amazing to be here full time and I love it,” said Klein. “There are so many fun things to do and I love it.”

At Wintergreen, Klein is involved in pattern design and new releases, and she is an artist as well.

“Part of the textile work that I did was in paper making, and I do consider myself a fiber artist,” she said.

Earlier this year, Klein had her first solo art show, with her works shown at Ely’s Historic State Theater.

“That was essentially a two-year process for me,” said Klein.

Klein is also an avid skier and has a love for music. She had a role in the recent community musical “Fiddler on the Roof,” and is part of the area band “The Chickadee dee-dees.”

The band is playing as part of a fundraiser for the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness on May 4.

“I’ve been singing and playing music my whole life,” said Klein. “It’s something that I love doing.”

Mattamore and Scarlet met in Detroit, where both worked in advertising, and after eloping to Iceland and briefly living in Chicago, they opted to make Ely and a cabin on Bear Island Lake their home.

“We started coming up to Ely during the pandemic and that’s when we fell in love with this place and found our little spot on Bear Island Lake,” said Scarlet.

The availability of high speed internet made it possible for them to move to Ely as both work remotely.

Scarlet has worked in video production, including commercials for Jersey Mike’s featuring famed actor Danny DeVito.

Outside of work, Scarlet works as a writer as well as a tarot reader and astrology practitioner.

“I always say that I’m not in the business of predicting the future,” said Scarlet. “I use tarot as a therapeutic tool to connect with people.”

Scarlet said she and Mattamore were inspired by a 2018 trip to Iceland and called it “a place where just like Ely, the nature and animals and weather and the character is its own self.”

“We love to hike and snowshoe and are excited to learn more about trails,” she said. “We love to kayak and bike and love outdoor activities up here and all the animals up here too.”

Mattamore, a photographer,

said he spent much of his adult life living in cities including Chicago, New York City and Detroit, but he has since felt Ely’s pull.

“Johanna and I were out one day and took my rickety old canoe on Bear Island Lake so I could shoot an island at sunset,” he recalled. “As we were paddling home, I said it was the first time in my life I feel like I was where I should be. We are just thrilled to be here.”

Pollman is a native of England while Olson is from Farmington, Minnesota.

Both have found Ely to be a welcoming home with Olson calling it his dream to live here.

“I’ve been coming up here since I was a young, young kid,” Olson said.

Pollman added that “this is something he’s wanted for all his life.”

Pollman worked in South Dakota and was a web developer for Avera Health and said the move there was in part because “we want to be in a beautiful place. We want to do a lot of outdoor activities, kayaking, hiking.”

The couple has also reached out to Ely via social media, with Pollman stirring comments with a Facebook post asking if there were any “hippy welcoming” bars in the area.

She said she “had fun” with the post and found Ely people “really laid back.”

Olson has worked in construction during his working life and he expects to do that work for at least one more summer before perhaps becoming “a house husband.”

The couple has four cats and two dogs.

“We’re also looking for people who enjoy kayaking and hiking and stuff,” said Olson.