Welcome to Ely ...

The city of Ely is located in Saint Louis County<1>.

The location of Ely has been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (ie- the GNIS).<2>

The pronunciation of Ely: EE-lee<3>

While we don't have a date for the founding of Ely, you might consider that their post office opened  in 1888.

From the  Census Estimates for 2019, Ely has a population of 3,355 people<4> (see below for details).

Ely is 1,450 feet [442 m] above sea level.<5>.

Time Zone: Ely lies in the Central Time Zone (CST/CDT) and observes daylight saving time

The area code for Ely: (218)

The ZIP code for Ely: 55731<6>

Population Details ...

Taken from the 2019 Census Estimates, Ely had an population of 3,355 people. This is a decrease of 3.03% since the 2010 Census (or a decrease of 9.91% since the 2000 Census).

At the time of the 2010 Census, Ely had a population of 3,460 people. This makes Ely the county's 7th most populous community.

The population of Ely represents 0.07% of the population of Minnesota (which has 5,303,925 people), making it the state's 190th most populous community.

With a 2010 count of 3,460 people, the population of Ely decreased 7.09% from the 2000 Census (with a count of 3,724 people).

More information can be found on the Census Page for Ely.

Communities Also Named Ely ...

Using our Gazetteer, we found that there are 13 communities that are also named Ely - they are located in Alabama, California (2), Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Texas, Vermont and Virginia.

For more information, see our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Ely.

Communities near Ely ...

We have created a list of 8 communities that are near Ely.

• Babbitt
  (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Babbitt have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Babbitt
  • Babbitt is located in Saint Louis County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,471 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Babbitt <7>
• Soudan
  (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Soudan have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Soudan
  • Soudan is located in Saint Louis County
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Soudan <7>
• Tower Junction
  (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Tower Junction have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tower Junction
  • Tower Junction is located in Saint Louis County
• Tower
  (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tower
  • Tower is located in Saint Louis County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 477 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Tower <7>
• Embarrass
  (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Embarrass
  • Embarrass is located in Saint Louis County
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Embarrass <7>
• Hoyt Lakes
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hoyt Lakes have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hoyt Lakes
  • Hoyt Lakes is located in Saint Louis County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,927 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hoyt Lakes <7>
• Allen
  (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Allen
  • Allen is located in Saint Louis County
  • Allen has also been known as:
  • Allen Junction
• Isabella
  (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Isabella
  • Isabella is located in Lake County
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Isabella <7>

To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy.

We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Ely. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Ely.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Ely. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Ely.

We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Ely. Our list includes 7 papers. See our Newspapers Page for Ely.

TripAdvisor Tourism Pages for Ely ...

Looking for more information about Ely? A wonderful source is the TripAdvisor website. We always start with the TripAdvisor Tourism page, where you can read an overview with links that will help you find lodging, restaurants and attractions.

In addition to the Tourism page for Ely, there are neighboring communities that also have Tourism pages. More information about those communities can be found on our TripAdvisor Page for Ely.

Adding Ely to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Ely in both the FIPS-55 and the GNIS. For more information, see the FIPS and GNIS Codes sections on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found for Ely was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<8>

From that list, the Ely post office opened in 1888.

We also found Ely in the book titled Business Atlas and Shippers' Guide (1895).

For more details, see References and Mentions for Ely.

Off-the-Road Links ...

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Ely. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Saint Louis County: www.co.st-louis.mn.us/

The official website for State of Minnesota: https://mn.gov/