Our Legacy
Drive 45 minutes west and slightly south of Ann Arbor and you will find yourself among many lakes and gently rolling hills – an area of southeast Michigan dubbed the “Irish Hills”. There you will also find Frog Holler Farm, with 120 acres of those rolling hills, along with many wooded sections and a large pond at the center. It’s a pretty piece of land. From the 1940’s to 1972, the land was owned by Dr. Robert and Cora Lees Gesell. Dr. Gesell was a professor of physiology and Chairman of the Physiology Dept. at U-M Medical School in the 40’s and 50’s. Mrs. Gesell was an ardent conservationist, and, when she decided to sell Frog Holler after the death of Dr. Gesell, asked that the new owners continue to care for the land and animals and to “forever call the land Frog Holler". This was the Gesell's pet name for the land, no doubt inspired by the frog chorus that emanates from the “hollers” between the hills (or perhaps by the frogs that holler!). Christine Stevens at the Ann Ar