Knowing that we wanted to get some miles behind us, our stop in the historic town of Ely was brief but we feel we picked the perfect place to visit- The Renaissance Village.

A visit to the Renaissance Village is a chance to see what housing and life was like in the early 1900’s in Ely. Many items have been donated to the Village and are on display. Walking through each house, decorated to represent the various ethnic groups that lived and worked here, is a chance to see and remember life with wringer washing machines, wood stoves, manual typewriters, heavy metal irons, ice boxes, and all the modern appliances of the 20th century.

The Italians primarily came to the area in two waves. The first group was recruited to build charcoal ovens for the mines in the Ward Mountain area. This process was used to smelt the ore like the coal burning blast furnaces of today. These Swiss-Italians came with the knowledge of how this was done in their own country.

The Prospector's Cabin gave us some insight into life "in the day".

All were history lessons that we fully enjoyed.



We lucked upon the Saturday Farmers Market. We delighted in homemade Peach Ice Cream and in observing the locals. We didn't feel like tourists in Ely.