Bruce and Sue Kerfoot, the most recent inductees to the Minnesota Resort & Campground Association Hospitality Hall of Fame, show the medals they received during the association’s fall conference in Nisswa on October 22.
The Minnesota Resort & Campground Association has inducted Bruce and Sue Kerfoot of Gunflint Lodge into its Hospitality Hall of Fame. They were honored during the MRCA’s Fall Conference Oct. 22 at Grand View Lodge in Nisswa.
The Hospitality Hall of Fame recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the development of Minnesota’s resort and campground industry and are deemed “legends” by their peers. The award honors lifetime achievement and exemplary leadership in the industry.
Bruce and Sue took over the resort from Bruce’s mother, Justine, in the late 1960s and transformed it into an upscale year-round full-service resort. They winterized the main lodge in the early 1990s and began to cater to the cross country ski crowd.
Today the resort offers classic cabins, luxurious lakeside cabins and romantic cottages, as well as bunkhouses and rustic cabins for canoeists who enjoy the Kerfoots’ other business, Gunflint Northwoods Outfitters.
Last year the Kerfoots developed the Towering Pines Canopy Tour at their resort to rave reviews and much publicity.
A nomination submitted for the Kerfoots noted their propensity for hiring temporary workers from countries throughout the world, their success in bringing fine dining deep into the Gunflint Trail, their innovative use of the Internet and social media, their early development of a naturalist program and their community/tourism involvement with local, regional and national organizations.
Bruce was born in a rustic log cabin at the resort and has lived most of his life on the Gunflint Trail. A Cornell University graduate, he has been involved in an extensive array of local, regional and state organizations. He served on the MRCA’s board of directors and was honored as its 1995 Resorter of the Year. He was an officer in the National Outfitting Association, a delegate to the White House Conference on Tourism, had a presidential appointment to the National Recreational Trail Advisory Board and presented testimony to a U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee.
Sue, a native of the Chicago area, has been active in her community as well. She serves as the historian for the Gunflint Trail Historical Society and was instrumental in the creation and operation of the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center.
After 45 years of running Gunflint Lodge together, Bruce and Sue have decided to put the resort up for sale. They feel fortunate to have spent 45 years in a business that they enjoyed in a place that they love with all their heart.
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