Justine Kerfoot

Justine Kerfoot (November 6, 1906-May 30, 2001) was born and raised in Illinois. She moved to the Boundary Waters area of Northern Minnesota and Ontario in 1928 and lived there until her death in 2001. Kerfoot was an integral part of the shaping of the Gunflint Trail and of the Gunflint community, serving as a role model for canoers and aspiring nature writers. Kerfoot and her husband Bill owned and operated the Gunflint Lodge for over fifty years and were founding members of the Gunflint Trail Association. Kerfoot’s involvement in the Association later led to better signage along the trail and to electricity being brought to the end of the trail.

In addition to making the Gunflint Trail what it is today, Justine Kerfoot was also a writer. She wrote several memoirs about the trail, Woman of the Boundary Waters, Gunflint: Reflections on the Trail, and A Life in Two Worlds, co-written with her friend Betty Powell Skoog. These matter-of-fact writings served as travel guides to those who visited the Gunflint Trail and also brought the trail to those who could not journey there themselves. Additionally, Kerfoot wrote a weekly column for the Cook Country-News Herald. Her column ran for forty-five years. Her writing gives a rich sense of the world of Native Americans and fur trappers in the far North.