"The Root Beer Lady" at the History Theatre

History Theatre is currently remounting their 2023 original play The Root Beer Lady, in which playwright/performer Kim Schultz so beautifully captures the spirit of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) and the inspiring life and personality of Dorothy Molter, the last non-indigenous human living in the BWCAW. The Saturday Evening Post once called her "the loneliest woman in America," but throughout the play Dorothy shows us why, in fact, she was "the luckiest woman in America," because she lived an authentic life that was exactly what she wanted, despite society's and her family's expectations of what a proper young woman should do. Whether or not you have a personal connection to the BWCAW like I do (click here to read about that), The Root Beer Lady will engage and entertain you for 80 minutes or so, make you laugh, and maybe even inspire you to go for a hike, look up at the trees, or jump in a lake (continuing through February 23).*

"The Root Beer Lady" at History Theatre

My first visit to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness was in February of 2016, when I went on an eco-spirituality dogsledding trip with my alma mater, College of St. Benedict. We stayed at Wintergreen Lodge in Ely (owned by Arctic explorer and St. John's alum Paul Schurke, member of Will Steger's 1986 dogsledding expedition to the North Pole), visited the headquarters of the Save the Boundary Waters campaign (which just recently had a huge win with a 20-year mining ban in the BWCAW watershed), and of course, traveled by dogsled through the pristine wilderness of Northern Minnesota. I was so enamored of the beauty and stillness of the place that I convinced my friend that we needed to do a canoeing trip. We signed up for Ely Outfitting Company's annual "Women in the Wilderness" trip that fall, where we were joined by other adventure- and nature-seeking women, led by our friendly and knowledgeable guide Kate, for an incredible four days and three nights in the BWCAW. I've traveled and hiked all over the world, but this is the most fully immersed in Nature, far away from any signs of civilization, that I've ever been. Our little group had such a wonderful time and got along so well that we reunited last summer for another amazing trip.