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Molter, Dorothy (1907–1986)

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Color image of Dorothy Molter at the door of her summer tent on Knife Lake, ca. 1985.

Dorothy Molter at the door of her summer tent on Knife Lake, ca. 1985.

Pennsylvania native Dorothy Molter spent over fifty years in Northern Minnesota, where she helped to run the Isle of Pines resort and provided nursing care for those in need. From the 1950s through the mid-1980s, she made batches of homemade root beer at her cabin on Knife Lake that drew thousands of tourists, anglers, and canoeists each summer and earned her the nickname “the Root Beer Lady.”

Dorothy Molter was born in 1907 to a working-class family in Arnold, Pennsylvania. Her mother died when she was young, so Dorothy and her five siblings were placed in a Cincinnati orphanage. This allowed the children to stay together and allowed their father, Cap Molter, to visit them when he was on leave from the railroad. Years later, when Cap remarried, the family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where Dorothy and her siblings grew up and attended high school.

As a child, Molter was quiet and athletic. She was active on her Calumet High School tennis, swimming, basketball, and rifle teams. In an era when women were expected to be wives and mothers, she sought out medical training at Auburn Park Hospital Nursing School.

After she graduated from nursing school in 1930, Molter joined her family on a fishing vacation at Bill Berglund’s Isle of Pines resort on Knife Lake in Northern Minnesota. One long day of train, car, and boat travel transported Molter to the pine-studded islands and fish-filled waters of Knife Lake.

At first, Molter spent as much time exploring this northern paradise as she did fishing. She learned about the native plants, animals, fish, and people around Knife Lake. With each yearly visit to Isle of Pines she became more adept at living in the wilderness and caring for herself and others.

By 1934, Molter started living and working at Isle of Pines. Berglund taught her skills such as portaging a canoe, dog sledding, and ice cutting. She used her sharpshooting prowess to hunt and her natural curiosity to find the best fishing and camping sites for visitors.

In turn, Molter provided nursing care to Berglund, helped him manage his diabetes, and assisted paddlers with first aid issues ranging from sunburns to fish hooks in their fingers. Outfitters started marking Isle of Pines on canoe maps as a place to stop for medical help. For this reason, Molter became known as the Nightingale of the Northwoods—a reference to English nurse Florence Nightingale.

Berglund died in 1948, leaving forty-one-year-old Molter to run Isle of Pines by herself. Even though she was happy living on her own, not everyone thought Molter should continue to live at Isle of Pines, which was located in the Boundary Waters Canoe and Wilderness Area (BWCAW).

Federal laws were passed that authorized the U.S. Forest service to acquire more land, including the Isle of Pines resort, but Molter refused to sell. After President Truman’s 1949 executive order restricted planes in BWCAW, all of Dorothy’s supplies had to be hauled in over fifteen miles of lakes and overland portages from the nearest road at Moose Lake. A group of local residents called “Dorothy’s Angels” helped Molter by bringing mail and supplies as they traveled by her home. Even with their help, Molter could no longer pack in bottles of pop. Then she had an idea that would make her famous as the Root Beer Lady.

Molter began to make her own pop at Isle of Pines with sugar, root beer extract, and crystal-clear water from Knife Lake. All of these ingredients were stirred with a canoe paddle for an added touch of pine flavor. Molter’s father, her sisters, and her nieces and nephews all helped the Root Beer Lady with her famous brew.

Dorothy’s fame grew when the October 1952 issue of the Saturday Evening Post published an article about Dorothy Molter titled, “The Loneliest Woman in America.” Dorothy, however, was anything but lonely. Her log book recorded as many as six thousand visitors who paddled to Knife Lake each summer to drink root beer and meet the famous Root Beer Lady.

Molter’s kindness, medical expertise, and root beer drew people to her home on Knife Lake for fifty-six years, until her death in 1986. She was seventy-nine years old.

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© Minnesota Historical Society
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Black, Wade, and Judith Hadel. Dorothy Molter Living in the Boundary Waters. DVD. Duluth: Jade Films, 1987.

Guy-Levar, Sarah, and Terri Schocke. Dorothy Molter The Root Beer Lady. Cambridge, MA: Adventure Publications, Inc., 2011.

Guy-Levar, Sarah (Dorothy Molter Museum director). Conversations with the author, 2016.

Related Images

Color image of Dorothy Molter at the door of her summer tent on Knife Lake, ca. 1985.
Color image of Dorothy Molter at the door of her summer tent on Knife Lake, ca. 1985.
Black and white photograph of Dorothy Molter as a toddler, Arnold, Pennsylvania, ca. 1909.
Black and white photograph of Dorothy Molter as a toddler, Arnold, Pennsylvania, ca. 1909.
Black and white photograph of the children of John “Cap” and Mattie Molter (left to right): William “Bud” Harry, Dorothy Louise, Margaret Hazel, Florence Ruth, Inez Helen, and John Adam. Photograph ca. 1915.
Black and white photograph of the children of John “Cap” and Mattie Molter (left to right): William “Bud” Harry, Dorothy Louise, Margaret Hazel, Florence Ruth, Inez Helen, and John Adam. Photograph ca. 1915.
Black and white photograph of Dorothy Molter at her eighth grade graduation, Chicago, Illinois, ca. 1920.
Black and white photograph of Dorothy Molter at her eighth grade graduation, Chicago, Illinois, ca. 1920.
Black and white photograph of Dorthy Molter in high school, ca. 1925.
Black and white photograph of Dorthy Molter in high school, ca. 1925.
Black and white photograph of Dorothy Molter in a nurse’s uniform, ca. late 1920s.
Black and white photograph of Dorothy Molter in a nurse’s uniform, ca. late 1920s.
Black and white photograph of Molter family and friend, ca. 1930.
Black and white photograph of Molter family and friend, ca. 1930.
Black and white photograph of Dorothy Molter and Bill Berglund, ca. 1930s.
Black and white photograph of Dorothy Molter and Bill Berglund, ca. 1930s.
Black and white photograph of Dorothy Molter holding a lake trout, ca. 1940s.
Black and white photograph of Dorothy Molter holding a lake trout, ca. 1940s.
Black and white photograph of Dorothy Molter, Jule, and Verena at Bearskin Portage in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, ca. 1960s.
Black and white photograph of Dorothy Molter, Jule, and Verena at Bearskin Portage in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, ca. 1960s.
Black and white photograph of Dorothy Molter lifting a pack out of a canoe, Isle of Pines, Knife Lake, Boundary Waters Canoe Area, ca. 1960s.
Black and white photograph of Dorothy Molter lifting a pack out of a canoe, Isle of Pines, Knife Lake, Boundary Waters Canoe Area, ca. 1960s.
Color image of Dorothy Molter and John Kimbler bottling root beer, Isle of Pines, Knife Lake, Boundary Waters Canoe Area, ca. 1970s.
Color image of Dorothy Molter and John Kimbler bottling root beer, Isle of Pines, Knife Lake, Boundary Waters Canoe Area, ca. 1970s.
Color image of Dorothy Molter with her Polaris Mustang snowmobile, Isle of Pines, Knife Lake, Boundary Waters Canoe Area, ca. 1970s.
Color image of Dorothy Molter with her Polaris Mustang snowmobile, Isle of Pines, Knife Lake, Boundary Waters Canoe Area, ca. 1970s.
Color image of Dorothy Molter sitting at the kitchen table of the Point Cabin, Isle of Pines, Knife Lake, Boundary Waters Canoe Area, ca. 1970s.
Color image of Dorothy Molter sitting at the kitchen table of the Point Cabin, Isle of Pines, Knife Lake, Boundary Waters Canoe Area, ca. 1970s.
Color image of Dorothy Molter and Ruth Molter at Point Cabin, Isle of Pines, Knife Lake, Boundary Waters Canoe Area ca. 1980s.
Color image of Dorothy Molter and Ruth Molter at Point Cabin, Isle of Pines, Knife Lake, Boundary Waters Canoe Area ca. 1980s.

Turning Point

In 1949, an executive order issued by President Harry Truman heightens restrictions on air travel to the Boundary Waters Canoe and Wilderness Area. Dorothy Molter, a long-time resident of the BWCAW, responds to these limits with ingenuity and hard work. She begins brewing her own root beer right at Isle of Pines on Knife Lake and attracts thousands of visitors annually.

Chronology

1907

On May 6, Dorothy is born to Mattie and John “Cap” Molter in Arnold, Pennsylvania.

1924

Molter enters Calumet High School. During her four years there she is active in tennis, basketball, and swimming and on the school’s rifle team.

1925

Molter is named Champion Marksman in the Girls’ Division of Chicago’s Citywide Competition.

1930

Molter graduates from Auburn Park Hospital Nursing School and her family visits Bill Berglund’s Isle of Pines resort on Knife Lake in Lake County, Minnesota.

1934

Molter moves to Isle of Pines to help run the resort and providing nursing care for Berglund.

1948

Berglund dies on March 22.

1948

The Thye-Blatnik Act authorizes the U.S. Forest service to acquire more land within the BWCA. When Molter is contacted requesting she sell Isle of Pines. She declined.

1949

President Harry Truman issues an executive order that restricts planes in the BWCA. Molter’s supplies must be paddled and portaged in. “Dorothy’s Angels,” a group of local residents, help by bringing mail and supplies as they travel by Molter’s place.

1950s

Snowmobiles are invented, making winter travel to Isle of Pines easier

1952

In October, the Saturday Evening Post publishes an article about Molter titled “The Loneliest Woman in America.” This article and others printed in local Minnesota newspapers brought Molter’s fight to stay on her island home before the nation.

1953

Molter starts making homemade root beer and serving it to guests; visitors give her the nickname “the Root Beer Lady.”

1964

The Wilderness Act of 1964 makes the BWCA part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. Due to public outcry, the Forest Service agrees to allow her to live at Isle of Pines until 1975. (Isle of Pines is no longer a functioning resort.)

1972

House Resolution 17168 allows Dorothy and Benny Ambrose, another non-indigenous, full-time BWCA resident, to remain in their homes until their deaths. The Forest Service appoints them volunteers-in-service and the USFS becomes part of Dorothy’s Angels.

1982

Ambrose dies. Molter is now the last remaining non-indigenous resident of the BWCA.

1986

On December 18, Molter dies of natural causes at Isle of Pines. She is buried next to her mother in Pennsylvania at a small service attended by family and friends. Her gravestone carries the epitaph “Nightingale of the Boundary Waters.”