ELY- The Dorothy Molter Museum turns 30 this year and has a summer full of events and new features to celebrate the milestone. The first item of note is the new root beer exhibit showing how Dorothy brewed and bottled her root beer. As the last resident in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Molter brewed around 10,000 bottles of root beer every summer to sell to visitors to her off-grid home and resort on the Isle of Pines.
The exhibit is in the screened porch of Dorothy’s Winter Cabin and includes the original equipment Molter used to make root beer. “This isn’t where Dorothy made the root beer, but it shows her equipment and explains her process,” said the museum’s executive director, Jess Edberg. Molter used the Winter Cabin to live in during the off-season. She lived in a tent cabin in the summer so she could rent out the Winter Cabin to visitors.
The exhibit was installed over last winter. “The new exhibit was funded by donations of around $3,000 that we raised during the 2022 November Give to the Max Day,” Edberg explained. The rest of the Winter Cabin displays many of Molter’s personal possessions and effects.
Root beer classes
One of the other celebratory activities sponsored by the museum is a summer full of root beer classes, taught by Edberg at the Ely Folk School. “The root beer classes were here (at the museum) in the past,” Edberg remarked. “Now they are at the folk school, and they are different from the former classes … Now the class includes the history of brewing root beer as well as how to make your own the Dorothy way.”
The classes are every Wednesday afternoon through August and cost $34. The class also includes admission to the museum. Those wanting to take the class can sign up through the folk school’s website at elyfolkschool.org.
Upcoming events
Other events scheduled for the 30th anniversary year include three open houses, the first of which is “Dorothy Day” this Sunday, June 25. Admission to the museum is free during the open house days.
The July “Donuts at Dorothy’s” open house is July 30, on the same weekend as the Blueberry Art Festival, with local donuts from Brainstorm Bakery and coffee from Ely’s Gene Hick’s coffee. The “Supporter Appreciation Day” open house is set for Aug. 13 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“At the August open house, we’ll have cast and crew from the upcoming Root Beer Lady Musical.” The musical based on Molter’s life will be coming to Ely’s Historic State Theater Sept. 7-10.
As part of the celebration of the museum’s thirty years, the State Theater will also show the documentary, “Living in the Boundary Waters” on Aug. 18, starting at 6 p.m. with a question-and-answer panel after the film. The documentary uses four years of eight-millimeter film shot on the Isle of Pines in the early 1980s.
The museum will cap its thirtieth-year activities with its annual root beer and beer garden and the root beer run on the weekend of the Ely Marathon, Sept. 22-23. More details are available on the museum’s website at rootbeerlady.com.
The museum is open daily through Sept. 4 and will be open Friday-Sunday until Sept. 30 and then Friday-Saturday through the end of October. With adult admission priced at $7, the museum remains one of the best tourist bargains in the Ely area.