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About Doug ~~ Christine Dennis ~~  ~~ ORF in the News ~~ Our Trees

About Us

About the Property

photo of Shagbark Hickory Tree
Shagbark Hickory

Forest Scene
Forest Scene

photo of our maple sugar shack
Our Sugar Shack
Of the 650 acres owned by the Dennis family, 400 acres comprise Otter River Farms. These include two miles of riverfront, innumerable ravines, several farm fields, and abundant managed forest. There are four ponds all designed for wildlife. Two of them have docks for catch and release bass fishing and access for swimming. Tucked amongst giant maples, walnuts, shagbark hickory, pine, and tuliptree are many outbuildings, most dating to the 1800s. The land's history is evident in the old farm tools and machinery that can be found on the property.

There are three distinct elevations: Being private property at the end of an unpaved road, Otter River Farms offers seclusion and rural rusticity untainted by development. There are rustic cabins and a hunt club. Tucked among giant sugar maples, walnuts and hickory trees is a modern, furnished house with five bedrooms, three bathrooms, dining room, kitchen, livingroom— and many antiques. The double car garage is set up into a great party room with couch, wood cookstove, beer fridge, large eating table with lots of chairs.
pine harvested under good management
White Pine harvested
under good management
photo of large truck loaded with logs
Logs harvested
under good management
Pine tree being sawed into lumber
Pine tree being
sawed into lumber
photo of Doug near split rail fence
Cheers! Come visit!
 
home place
Home place
 
White Pine
White Pine (Look Way Up)
 
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About Doug

photo doug and_sandi dennis on bench overlooking ravine
Doug & Sandi Dennis

photo of Doug receiving Carolinian Canada Conservation award
Doug receiving Carolinian
Canada Conservation Award

photo of Doug at Carolinian Canada Conservation awards night with Tom Bird
Doug and Tom Bird

Tom was the first weatherman on the London television station.

Doug Dennis, owner of Otter River Farms, won the Carolinian Canada Conservation Award for 2009-10 for good management of the forests on his property. He is a member of the Ontario Forestry Association, the Ontario Woodlot Owners Association, Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association, and Ducks Unlimited. He is past president of the Elgin-Middlesex Woodlot Association and a past board member of the Long Point Regional Conservation Authority. Prior to amalgamation, Doug served as a councillor for Bayham Township for three years.
photo of Doug with screech owl
Owner Doug Dennis holding screech owl

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About Christine Dennis

photo of Sean working in herb garden
Herbal Gardens
On the property is the home of Christine Dennis and husband Sean Grantham. Christine is a medical herbalist who trained at the esteemed University of Wales. She is one of only a small handful of people in North America with this specific level of herbal medicine training and education. Christine offers workshops, student clinics, herb walks and seminars. For more information visit her web site www.christinedennis.ca.
 

History


Loyalists Settling Upper Canada
The property was known to the old-timers as McQuigganville. Mr. McQuiggan, the original owner, was in the British army. He was stationed in the Caribbean when the war of 1812 broke out. Shipped to Upper Canada to fight in the war, he was rewarded, after the victory, with a land grant from the Crown of 200 acres on the Big Otter Creek.

Like many soldiers, he liked to drink. Vienna, the closest watering-hole, was a booming, prosperous lumber town in the mid 1800s, second only to the Ottawa valley in timber production. Vienna was also the home of the famous Edison family as well as Upper Canada's second high school.

Regardless of the weather, McQuiggan would walk the river road to and from Vienna. One night he failed to return home and was eventually found dead in a snow drift. But the story of hard-drinking McQuiggan lives on, and the road to Otter River Farms bears his name.

Canadian Militia 1900

British army winning the war of 1812,thus saving Canada

British Troops Fighting War of Independence

Pioneers Clearing the Land

Artifacts Found in the area left behind by the Neutral Indians who were wiped out in the Huronian Wars by the Iroquois

 

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