History
The Story of White Iron Beach Resort
White Iron Beach Resort was founded in 1917, making it one of the region's earliest wilderness resorts. Even then, the small community of Ely was becoming a tourist destination. With a history rich in Ojibwe Indian culture, fur trading and iron ore mining, not to mention the natural beauty of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, makes Ely a fun and fascinating community. Ninety years later, White Iron Beach Resort is still in business, creating vacation memories for folks around the world. White Iron Lake, which is part of a five-lake chain that extends into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, is known for its remarkable scenery, including dense forests, islands and rocky shorelines. We invite you to go back in time and discover the White Iron Lake of yesterday, little changed in nearly a century.
And Now.
White Iron Beach has been owned us, Kerry and Sandy Davis, for the last 17 years. We both are originally from Galesburg Illinois. Our jobs took us to Richton Park Illinois, , Agoura Hills California, Frankfort Illinois and then to our home of Ely. Our interest in the resort business was spawned by several vacations to resorts with 8 other families. Kerry got the bug first and then Sandy got on board and loves the business and people we get to meet. Our boys Chad, John and Taylor have helped us our along the way to make WIBR a real family place. Click on the family photo below for a bigger image and caption.
Happy Holidays!
One of the blessings of this time of year is the chance it gives us to connect with you again! It is Friends and Guest like you who make our job a pleasure to do . Which keeps our resort very successful. We had a pretty full resort all summer long and the fishing was awesome all season. We would normally start closing cabins the 2nd week of October but with the big fire we had, we ended up housing firefighters well into the end of October. The fire got close but thanks to the awesome fire crew no lives or structures were lost.
We have big news! Most of you probably already know but if you don't we are expecting our third grandchild. John is expecting a baby boy the middle of January.
John is still in Ely and it will be wonderful to have a grandchild living so close. Chad , Tiffany, Mason (who is 7) and Isabella (who makes sure we know she is 4 ½ ) are still living in Chicago. We look forward to the three weeks that Mason and Bella get to spend with us during our summer season and then the many visits in between. Taylor is loving college life. We are not quite empty nesters as Taylor decided to stay and go to the community college here to get his generals out of the way and then transfer to get his teaching degree. We keep telling him he has the best roommates ever! LOL!
We have several projects in the works this Fall. At WIBR we have moved cabin #8 back from the lake about 20 feet. This will allow us room for a new deck or screened in porch along with a better view that is not right on top of cabin #7. Also a bit better parking situation. We have been thinking of doing this project for several years and decided to pull the trigger. I think anyone staying there this upcoming year will like the end result. We have two new owners at ROWIL next door which means cabin changes and improvements. There are going to be bigger bathrooms in three of the lake shore units. The big outfitting building was one of the units sold and will become a very nice 4 bedroom unit that will ultimately be a year round cabin.
We are going to be doing several sport shows this Winter and Spring. The schedule is on the back. Also remember to sign up for our monthly newsletter. Just send us an e-mail and you can keep in touch with us and the Ely area year round.
May your Holiday Season and the New Year be filled with much
Joy and Happiness!
Sincerely,
Kerry and Sandy
