Not long after posting our article on Florida Everglades Hermits, the following item appears in a local Florida newspaper relating the discovery of one of the hermit’s notebooks, Al Seely’s would-be autobiography titled by him The Phoney Hermit, which is reprinted in part here.
Part 1: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12931630&BRD=2256&PAG=461&dept_id=455823&rfi=8;
Part 2: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12971705&BRD=2256&PAG=461&dept_id=455823&rfi=8;
Part 3: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13023953&BRD=2256&PAG=461&dept_id=455823&rfi=8;
Part 4: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13074695&BRD=2256&PAG=461&dept_id=455823&rfi=8.
Michigan hermit
Bill Mattila was called the “hermit of Brockway Mountain.” There are pictures of his cabin, near Copper Harbor, Michigan, on a message board, plus several messages from people who remember him or just wanted to add a comment. URL: http://www.pasty.com/discuss/messages/313/893.html
Minnesota hermit: Dorothy Molter
Dorothy Molter (1907-89) — sometimes spelled Moulter — lived as a hermit in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, in the Superior National Forest, in northern Minnesota. She was the subject of a LIFE magazine profile on hermits and a book by Bob Cary entitled Root Beer Lady, the Dorothy Molter Story (Duluth: Pfeiffer-Hamilton, 1992). Molter was called the “Rootbeer Lady” because she offered her home-made root beer to visitors and travelers. A museum near Ely preserves her cabins and effects. URLs: http://www.canoecountry.com/dorothy and http://www.irontrail.org/Attractions/museums/Dorothy+Molter+Museum/.
Hermits portrayed
Two items about hermits portrayed in film and theater:
1. Lugger the 18th-century hermit who lived in a cave in Cornwall, England, is portrayed in a stage play; URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cornwall/3922693.stm.
2. Robert Harrill, the Fort Fisher hermit of North Carolina, is portrayed in a documentary film. URLs: http://www.shelbystar.com/portal/ASP/article.asp?ID=10493; http://www.cucalorus.org/film_detail.asp?id=261 and http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/states/
north_carolina/counties/gaston/9222304.htm?1c. For more about the Fort Fisher Hermit see our original note for July 30, 2003 (URL: http://www.hermitary.com/around/archives/000094.html).
Dubches hermits of Russia
A monastic outpost in Siberia near the Dubches river clandestinely housed “hermits” and peasants against government approval. In 1951 the illegal monasteries were sighted from the air and subsequently demolished, their possessions destroyed, and all associated with the monasteries tried and convicted. The Library of Congress maintains a Web site with photographs documenting the trial.
URL: http://frontiers.loc.gov/intldl/mtfhtml/mfdigcol/iicoll.html#ph3.
URL of photographs: http://frontiers.loc.gov/intldl/mtfhtml/mfdigcol/lists/mtfwduTitles1.html.