Back in the day, the Bally Blacksmith Shop in Grand Marais, hummed with activity.

Sam Bally, who in 1911 founded the shop, used his forging and blacksmithing skills to shoe horses, provide repair services to the fishing and forest industries, and to serve the everyday repair needs of local residents.

Today, a community effort is underway to preserve the small wooden shop as a history site that offers interpretative programming.

"It's pretty cool on a number of levels," Carrie McHugh, Cook County Historical Society museum director said of the preservation. "It's one of very few blacksmith shops left in the state that came full of tools and artifacts, the fact that the state supported its purchase with legacy funds, and that we have the opportunity with other grant funding to bring it back to life."

Over nearly 100 years, three generations of the Bally family operated the blacksmith shop on Broadway, in the heart of Grand Marais.

The modest shop, built with rough pine boards, was in 1986 placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 2010, Bill Bally, the shop's most recent owner, passed away.

"With the passing of Bill Bally and his wife a year later, it was like 'what's going to happen'?" said McHugh.

However, the shop's heritage and its significance in providing services to local residents and the natural resources economy, led to a grass roots campaign to preserve the building. Within a week of deciding to seek preservation funding, 500 letters of support were received.

"It was the place to go when people wanted something fixed," said McHugh. "The shop was so busy at times that they had to do their work out on the gravel street in front of the shop. A lot of people who are around today have memories of watching the blacksmithing, hearing the noises, the fire, and the smells."

For years, the shop has been a point of interest for tourists, said resident Duane Ege, who is leading the preservation effort.

"You can't go there to mow the grass without people stopping and asking about it," said Ege.

An outdoor space between the shop and a newer metal shop will be used for demonstrations and interpretative activities.

When complete, projections are that 10,000 or more visitors could visit the shop annually.

Preserving the old wooden shop is important to the history and people of Grand Marais, Cook County and the historical society said Ege.

"You can tell it's an old blacksmith shop," said Ege. "The floors are worn from where the horses were standing and you can smell it. It was filled with all kinds of tools, hundreds of horseshoes, blacksmith equipment, nuts and bolts, and we even found a Stanley Steemer engine. Sam Bally was also a Winchester dealer and we have the original boxes that the shotguns came in."

With preservation work underway, it's been discovered that additional structural work will be required on the 94-year-old shop, said Ege.

However, plans are to have the shop cleaned up, made safe, and open to visitors on August 1, said Ege.

"We'll have the forge area ready and have it cleaned up so people can go in there and make it look like you can go to work." said Ege.

Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board supported preservation of the Bally Blacksmith Shop with a Culture and Tourism grant.