Molter, Dorothy (1907–1986)

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.