Some Gunflint Outfitters History...

Pantry — Part 1

For someone coming from the city, the term pantry has more of a theoretical meaning than an actual meaning. I knew what a pantry was because my grandmother had one. We really didn’t have one at home. There was a small closet where my mother stored some excess canned goods. When I was very young, she used to can fruits and vegetables and store them in the closet. Most of the time we could run down to the store and easily get whatever was needed. I can remember riding my bike down to get milk or a loaf of bread. It was only when I moved to the woods that I learned what a true pantry was.

In a very real sense, the lodge has always operated several kinds of pantries. There were the traditional pantries like a root cellar, dry storage, and a screen house. When you live 45 miles from the nearest hardware store, you also need to have a pantry for plumbing supplies, electrical parts, lumber, and paints. Each pantry helped to make the resort run smoothly

In 1968 the lodge didn’t have Justine’s screen house to keep fresh meat in, but the dry storage and root cellar were still in operation. These became the first pantries I used. That first winter I can remember taking a basket down to get canned goods out of the root cellar. We stored everything that couldn’t be frozen in the root cellar during the winter. Basically a root cellar is a small building surrounded by about 5 feet of dirt. There is a little vent hole through a pipe in the roof to help keep down the moisture level. The entrance is through a double door with about 4-5 feet between the doors. A tiny radiant heater inside the building keeps the temperature just above freezing.

The front door of the root cellar was exposed to the north wind. During the summer the entrance was at ground level but the winter snows always built up in front of the door. Periodically Bruce would have to go and shovel out the drifted snow. Eventually he would make steps in the snow so I could literally walk down into the root cellar. About once a week I would go “shopping” in the root cellar for canned goods.