Justine Kerfoot

Justine Kerfoot was an author and outdoors-woman who moved to the Boundary Waters in 1928 and helped establish the Gunflint Lodge.

Justine Kerfoot circa 1995

History
Justine Spunner (later Kerfoot) circa 1932

Early life in the Chicago area

Justine Kerfoot was born in 1906 in Barrington, Illinois to George W and Mae (Lane) Spunner.[1] She spent her early years in the Chicago area.[2][3][4] Her father was a successful attorney.

She attended Northwestern University circa 1928. Spunner majored in zoology, minored in philosophy and chemistry, played soccer and volleyball, and joined the Outing Club at Northwestern. She planned to go to medical school and become a doctor. She graduated with a degree in zoology and finished one year of graduate study before moving to Gunflint Lake in 1928.

Justine Kerfoot circa 1940

Life in the north woods

Justine's mother bought the Gunflint Lodge in 1927 or 1928.[5][6] Mae Spunner brought her daughter, Justine, up with her when she was considering purchase of the resort from Dora Blankenburg. While the two women discussed and finalized the matter, Justine took her first canoe trip with someone who was a college friend and a guide. They went down Granite River to Saganaga Lake. At the time Justine had just finished her undergraduate work and planned to become a physician. Justine had agreed with her mother to come up during the summers while in school and help her run the resort.[6]

During the Great Depression her family lost almost everything except for the lodge.[7] They moved to the lodge which had no plumbing or electricity.[7] Justine learned how to put the plumbing in herself. She also learned how to mush sled dogs, repair cars, fix telephone lines, build furniture,[7] and fur trapping.[2]

At the time of the purchase it was 5 cabins plus small lodge building with a store carrying supplies for the Indians and fishing tackle for the guests, plus a dining room to serve meals.[6] After 5 years of associating with them the Chippewa Indians trusted her. They taught her wilderness skills.[5][8]

She met Bill Kerfoot, the son of Hamline University’s president, whose foreign service ambitions were dashed in the Depression camped on a beach, desperate for work. Justine offered him room and board in exchange for resort work.[2] In 1934 she married Bill Kerfoot. They had 3 children; Neal (1935-1935), Bruce, Pat and Sharon.[4] She once led a winter hunting trip while 8 months pregnant. They eventually divorced. The lodge burned in 1953 and the family rebuilt it. Their son Bruce bought the lodge from his parents. He ran it until 2016 when he sold it.[9][10]

She played an important role in the shaping of the Gunflint Trail.[11]

She served as Cook County Commissioner from 1965 to 1968, serving as Chair in 1968.[12] She was unhappy about the extension of the Gunflint Trail to Saganaga Lake via a toll road on private property.[13]

She portaged her own canoe until she was 90 years old.[7] Her canoe is on display at the Chik-Wauk Museum & Nature Center center [14] She died on May 30, 2001, at age 94 having visited the Amazon and Antarctica.[2][10]

Kerfoot as an author

She was the sole author of two published books, co-authored a third, and created the foreword for a fourth:

Woman Of The Boundary Waters
  • Woman Of The Boundary Waters: Canoeing, Guiding, Mushing, and Surviving (Minnesota) Paperback – April 15, 1994[1]

Gunflint Reflections on the Trail

Other
  • A life in Two Worlds 1996, co-authored
  • The Gunflint Lodge Cookbook: Elegant Northwoods Dining 1997, wrote the foreword and provided some recipes [18]

She wrote a “On the Gunflint Trail” column that ran weekly for 42 years in the Cook County News Herald.[2]

Justine Kerfoot circa 1945

See also

References
  1. "Woman of the Boundary Waters". University of Minnesota Press. Retrieved 2020-06-19. ISBN 0-8166-2443-7
  2. "City Girl Justine Kerfoot became a North Woods Icon", Star Tribune, May 5, 2019.
  3. "Minnesota Environmental Issues Oral History Project: Interview with Justine Kerfoot : Collections Online : mnhs.org". collections.mnhs.org. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  4. "Justine Spunner Kerfoot (1906-2001) - Find A..." www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  5. "Interview with Justine Kerfoot, Minneapolis, Minnesota". reflections.mndigital.org. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  6. History of Gunflint Lodge https://gunflint.com/the-resort/history-of-gunflint/ Retrieved July 2, 2020
  7. "PRX". beta.prx.org. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  8. Tribune, Shirley Barnes Special to the. "ROUGHING IT". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  9. July 16, ohtadmin | on; 2016. "An interview with Gunflint Lodge's Bruce Kerfoot | Cook County News Herald". www.cookcountynews-herald.com. Retrieved 2020-06-19.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. "Welcome to the Gunflint Trail New Owners of Gunflint Lodge | Boundary Waters Blog". Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  11. "EXPLORE THE STATE". www.mnwritersmap.org. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  12. "Goodbye to Gunflint's Justine Kerfoot". bwca.cc. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  13. June 01, ohtadmin | on; 2013. "Historical Reflections | Cook County News Herald". www.cookcountynews-herald.com. Retrieved 2020-06-19.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. Lodge, Gunflint; Outfitters (2019-08-24). "Justine Kerfoot's Canoe at Chik-Wauk". Gunflint Lodge. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  15. Gunflint Reflections Trail. 2007. ASIN 0816653690. ISBN 978-0-8166-5369-0.CS1 maint: ASIN uses ISBN (link)
  16. "Gunflint". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  17. "Gunflint". University of Minnesota Press. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  18. Berg, Ron; Kerfoot, Sue (1997). The Gunflint Lodge Cookbook: Elegant Northwoods Dining (NED - New ed.). University of Minnesota Press. doi:10.5749/j.cttttmq5. ISBN 978-0-8166-2831-5.
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