Justine's Meatloaf - Day 251

  This day was actually filled with driving. The only excitement was that my car battery was completely dead when we got back to the Snowbank TH. But Monica and I jumped it from hers. We went back to Ely and ate (at the Chocolate Moose, of course), made sure my car started after I got gas, and we parted ways.

I promised you I'd try to explain Justine's Meadloaf that I ordered for dinner a few nights ago. Here we go. Here's the meal again. It was a tasty meatloaf served on toast with gravy and tater tots.

Who is Justine? She is Justine Kerfoot, earlier owner of Gunflint Lodge. Here is what the Lodge looks like today. There are numerous other buildings- cabins, event buildings, the bunkhouse, etc.


Here is a picture of the Lodge in 1930 soon after Justine and her mother had acquired it.


Justine was born in 1906. She completed college with a degree in zoology with minors in philosophy and chemistry. She played sports. She had planned to become a doctor. In the late 1920s, her mother bought this resort on the Gunflint Trail from the family who had begun it, and Mae (her mother) and Justine began running the lodge. Justine was captivated with the backwoods life. I think this picture might be the lodge even before 1930.


Justine learned how to do everything- carpentry, canoeing, being an electrician, guiding, plumbing, trapping, fishing, you name it. She wrote a newspaper column and several books. She was friends with the Chippewa and anyone else who needed a friend. Although she was a small woman, people soon learned to respect her knowledge and strength.

Her son Bruce, and his wife Sue, ran Gunflint Lodge until just a few years ago when it was sold out of the family.

Justine portaged her own canoe until she was 90. She was responsible for a lot of the planning and deveopment of the Gunflint Trail area, serving on local boards. And more. Quite a lady, don't you think? I would love to have met her, but I have met Bruce and Sue, and I have read a biography of her life. The closest I could get to her was to have my picture taken with her portrait in 2009. This picture no longer hangs in the lodge. It probably belonged to the family, and was not sold with the building.

You can see why I had to have Justine's meatloaf. It would be neat if it really were her recipe, but even if it's not, I had to order it.

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