North American Bear Center - Ely, MN

    As we left Ely, Minnesota we decided to stop at the Bear Center, heavily advertised in brochures and flyers around town.

  The museum had over 50 exhibits about bears with accompanying videos running on loops - mute with words scrolling across screen bottoms . . . about bear history, bear health, bear mothering, bear feeding, bear cubs, bear training, bear futures - mostly concerning black bears.  There was a huge art corner with bear paintings and giant photos for sale as well as a bear shop - books, videos, t-shirts, etc.

   A movie theater too as well as an observation room for the several black bears that lived in the enclosed woods on the other side of glass.

   While a staff member gave a lecture about bear safety . . .

  . . . an old bear named Ted knew to climb onto a wooden box scale to get his pre-lunch snack (and get his weight recorded).

   While Ted was snacking, two women walked freely through the enclosure scattering seeds and nuts.  They wedged fruit in some lower tree branches.

    Another black bear named Lucky appeared out of the woods for lunch.

   We learned these adventure magazine cover photos are usually the same trained bear - looking closely, yes - the teeth do match up.

  A skeleton of North America's giant short faced bear - extinct about 10 - 12,000 years ago.

   The end.  A one-armed bear discarded by the back door.

  From Ely we headed west to Grand Rapids and continued to drive through the most beautiful mosquito and black fly country.