Women’s Stone Masonry: 3 Day Walkways to Walls

July 24-26, 2024
7:00 am - 6:00 pm
$50
All 3 Meals Included During Class Days
Lodging Available

Learn how to work with stone and mortar, walls, and build pathways and foundations, skills that are often male-dominated. Hands-on experience in the art and skill of stone wall construction: selecting native stones, mixing concrete, placing stones, esthetic and structural considerations, choice of tools and materials. Help build something that will last virtually forever.

Please indicate your interest by filling out this registration form. Dependent on demand, 8 people will be admited to the class. Upon admission, there will be a $50 class fee. 
This is not a registration form, rather an interest form. We will reach out to interested parties this spring. 

In Will Steger's Words: Responsible, lasting construction skills draw from Ely’s natural surroundings. Greenstone areas around Ely make up some of the oldest known bedrock on Earth. In partnership with the Ely Folk School, a select group of craftspeople will learn stonemason skills that will continue the Steger Center’s legacy of using natural, local resources to blend exquisitely into its northern Minnesota surroundings.

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) contains four elements: sky, water, forest, and the Canadian Shield. The Steger Center, which borders the BWCA on three sides, is built on Ely Greenstone, some of the oldest exposed bedrock in the world. It was first formed 2.2 billion years ago as silt at the bottom of a warm shallow ocean. Through the process of plate tectonics this region was heaved up into a mountain range the size of the Rockies that over time was eroded down to its elevation of 1500 feet. In recent geological time numerous glacial epochs scoured the surface to form the numerous lakes of the boreal forests.

Stone has always been a mainstay in the construction at the Center and its surrounding campus. In 1965 I first mixed sand and cement (which I canoed and portaged in) to build a stone fireplace for my cabin. Later I built a stone root cellar from sand and cement that I dogsledded in. The simple process of stone-building is what drew me as much as the permanence of the final product. During the crossing of Antarctica I journaled about working silently under the hot sun, the feel of the rock in my hands, the smell of rock and water in the dry heat, the sweet sounds of birds conversing with each other. Stone-building is a Zen practice. It is the definition of being in the moment.

Decades ago I knew that I would need stonemasons to build the Center. All dreams start with intention, so I held that intention and waited year after year. Then I heard about a dry stonemason named Jim Sullivan. We met and had a lot in common. Like me, he graduated from the University of St Thomas majoring in geology and studied under Jack Brownstein. Jim and I both struggled with our grades, and it was Jack’s counsel that got us through to graduation. Like all the tradespeople who work at the Center, Jim is an excellent teacher. We started together on our first course 18 years ago. Jim’s brother Tim and his son-in-law Ian are also great masons and have joined us over the years. The stonework that has been produced by masters and their apprentices is simply amazing. I am very proud that a number of our students are stonemasons today and many more have built their own walls and foundations.

This class is best suited for people 18+ who self-identify as female. No experience is necessary! One should be able to lift at least 30 pounds and able to be on their feet for a couple hours at a time. The Steger Center is not yet fully wheelchair accessible, though we are happy to work with any individual accessibility needs. 

About the Instructors: Ian McKiel and Aurora Wahlstrom: 

In Ian's Words: I have always been drawn to the built environment. Why I chose my profession, and why I still truly enjoy it, is that finding the balance between aesthetically beautiful and pragmatically functional is always an engaging challenge. I earned a bachelor of environmental design from the University of Minnesota and worked for several garden centers and landscape designers before focusing on stonework and masonry. I owe my skill and training to my mentor, master stonemason Jim Sullivan.  Over the 12 years I apprenticed with him, he shared with me the craft and art of masonry that has been his life’s work.  I am eternally indebted to him for teaching and guiding me to express my own passion and creativity through the medium of stone and brick and mortar.

In Aurora's Words: My name is Aurora Wahlstrom. I laid my first stone in 2013 as an apprentice for the Steger Center’s Stone Masonry program, taught by Ian. Since then I’ve had the privilege of working with stone all across the U.S, but my favorite place to explore masonry has always been Ely MN, where the stone can be 2.7 billion years old and quarried right out of local ridges. Between that and the comradery that tends to be forged through working with stone together, I truly feel that masonry rocks.