Kelly Johnson, and famous engineer and Yooper, who worked at the Lockheed skunk works and in Area 51, on the U2 spy planes had his own private airstrip next to South Ely Township Park.

Kelly Johnson, born in Iron Mountain, Michigan was an aeronautical and systems engineer who played an important part in the design and production of Lockheed U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird spy planes during the Cold War!