This is a bush like tree In the boundary waters canoe area near Ely, MN. I want it in my yard! The berries did not taste like blue berries, but looked like them. It had a long stem. They were good when purple and pink.

It's some kind of Serviceberry (Amelanchier). If the berries tasted good, it's probably either Saskatoon Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia)

Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia)

or Red Twig Serviceberry (Amelanchier sanguinea)

http://plants.usda.gov/core/pr...

There are a huge number of commercially available cultivars of Serviceberry, but most are based on hybrids involving A. arborea and don't produce particularly good fruit, they're grown primarily for the spring flowers and the fall color of the leaves. You'll want to find plants of Amelanchier sanguinea, Amelanchier alnifolia, or Amelanchier stolonifera if you want them for the fruit.

Anderwood, you are braver than I am to taste something when you have not yet identified the plant.
You live on the edge!

greene said:Anderwood, you are braver than I am to taste something when you have not yet identified the plant.
You live on the edge!

My thoughts exactly.

A friend of mine ate them first!

But how long after he ate them did you wait?

Anderwood said:A friend of mine ate them first!

Reminds me of the old Mapo adds..."Let Micky taste it...he'll eat anything!"

(Pssst... let's see if this guy also posts on the mushroom forum.)
Hope you have a lot of friends!

Bad Mary

I promise to behave , but I'm still not goin' camping or foraging with Anderwood...

Based mostly on the singularly born berries, my best guess would be Amelanchier bartramiana, but really, there isn't enough detail in the pics to know.
As a child and through high school, I spent at least a month every summer at our cabin a half mile south of the BWCAW. Most of that time exploring the wild. Olga Lakela's A Flora of Northeastern Minnesota was an indispensable companion.

Here are more pics.