Welcome to The Ottawa Valley

A Forest Heritage

The logging history of the Ottawa Valley is a colourful one, forever preserved in tall tales and real characters. One of the most famous of these was George Bryson who, in 1835, built a 915 m log slide to bypass the cascading waterfall at La Grande Chute on the Coulonge River. This water-filled chute carried the valuable square timber over the rocky falls to calmer waters beyond. Today, Les Chutes Coulonge is a carefully restored and protected site. For info: 819-683-2770.

Arnprior’s Gillies Grove is a woodland cathedral of 175-year-old white pines, and massive hardwoods and basswoods, including the largest basswood in Canada. For 135 years, people have enjoyed the flora, fauna and tranquility of this complex ecosystem: red shouldered hawks, cooper’s hawks, barred owls, screech owls and pileated woodpeckers. Surrounded by trees as tall as a 10-storey building in the Shaw Woods, at Lake Dore, you sense the uniqueness. A trail winds through this mixed forest undisturbed by loggers for over 150 years. Since this land has probably never been cleared, it is typical of those that Native Canadians called home for centuries before the dramatic European harvest of the 1800s. In this woodland preserve, the lower tree branches shoot out at the height of the average Ottawa Valley treetop!

For more information call 1-800-757- 6580.

Media Inquiries:

Judy Hugli, Ottawa Valley Tourist Association
800-757-6580
jhugli@countyofrenfrew.on.ca

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