DuMochelle Auction?

[Bill Murphy]

Lester Ruwe, another Grosse Point Farms resident and serious gun guy and hunter, owned a spread in Ontario he called Hubertus. Does anyone know about this hunting club or maybe someone we know may have shot there? The Ruwes were serious gunners who hunted all over the world. Kevin M. and I happened into a yard sale in the Washington, D.C. area where the Ruwe hunting equipment was being sold. Lester Ruwe's son, Nicholas had an ambassador's position and his wife, Nancy was the social secretary at the White House for some time.

[Big D]

The Rewe Marsh was at the lower end of the Detroit River, just north of Amherstberg, Ontario, and about 4 miles or so north of the point where the River dumps into the Northwest corner of Laker Erie. The marsh was sold about 4 years ago for several million $$. Don't know anything about the new owners. When sold, it was two parcels, as I understand it. One was the marsh itself, and the other was the cabin site which was about a half mile away. They may have been sold separately

[Bill Bolyard]

Roger Smith also hunted at the Turtle Lake Club in northern Michigan. They have around 26,000 acres, the club was establish in the late 1880's. Many of our political leaders from the postmaster general to supreme court justices, and Captains of industry have hunted there. Al Warren was one of them along with Mr Freuhoff that owns that little trailer company

Bill

[Big D]

Fruehoff was a member of a duck marsh about 5 miles SE of the Ruwe Marsh. There was (and still is) a lot of American $$$ in those duck marshes

[Bill Murphy]

From what I understand about large Ontario holdings, they were originally railroad land leased on long term leases, not actually purchased until recent times.

[Big D]

Haven't heard that angle. In SW Ontario, much of the land was granted by the Crown as "Concessions" - land given to someone for service to the Crown. Today in the area where I am invited to hunt, most of the roads are described as "4th concession", "5th concession", etc.

The marsh I shoot has been owned by the same American family for something around 80 years. At the time that my friend's grandfather bought the property (500 acres or so) his friends all kidded him about spending money for a soggy piece of marsh. Today, it's worth millions, I'm sure

[Bill Murphy]

I understood the Crown gave such concessions to the railroad, something like 25 or 50 miles on each side of the tracks. In turn, the railroad was allowed to sell or least such land to finance their operations. Don't know the details, but it sounds like a good deal if you had a few bucks at the time.