James . Patrick . Howley
Geologist, surveyor, museum curator, and author. Born July 7th, 1847 near St.John's, son of Richard Howley and Eliza Burke. For 20 years Howley spent a good part of each year exploring the interior of Newfoundland. James Howley made some extensive and difficult treks between the south and northeast coasts, as in 1888, when he went up the Bay d'Est River to Meelpaeg Lake, and then across to Exploits. He spent several seasons in the Grand Lake area, looking for commercially-viable seams of coal. Coal was found in Howley eventually and Grand Lake is the water supply that flows into the town of Howley. The geological surveys and the maps published Alexander Murray (1873, 1879) Howley`s partner and Howley himself(1907, 1919), made Newfoundland's land-based resources much better known, firmly established the geography of the interior, and were the essential preliminary to the building of the railway (1881 to 1897) and the development of forest industries. This small town was named after James .P. Howley for all of his discovery, exploration, and outstanding work.
Bartibog, Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada. The Story of the origin of the first moose in Howley, Newfoundland, and the man responsible John Connell.
Traveling piggy-back style from Chatham, to Newfoundland.
In 1972, there
were an estimated 40,000 moose in Newfoundland. Wildlife officials in
the tenth province believe that since 1945, there have been more than
180,000 moose legally hunted.
The significance of those two statements may escape you unless you know
that the ancestors of all those moose once roamed the Miramichi forests
in the vicinity of the Bartibogue River.
Very well then, how did the moose get from the Miramichi to Newfoundland?
Well, it's very simple. A group of men from the Bartibogue area lassoed
the moose, tethered them on to sleds, and took them to Chatham to put
them on the train, bound for Howley Newfoundland.
Moose Requested !
The request for live moose must
have come from the Newfoundland government.
The men who were involved were paid $50 for each moose "That was
a lot of money in those days!"
When they reached the moose, according to those who have heard the old
stories, they formed a circle around them.
The Round-Up..."Then they lassoed them -- just like cattle,"
John Nowlan says.
Having lassoed the moose, the men would tether it, and drag it out to
where the horses waited with high-sided sleds. When they had captured
six by this method, they removed their snowshoes and drove to Chatham
(a distance of 10 to 12 miles) where they put the moose on the train.
Four Survived ?
John Nowlan seems to remember hearing that one of the moose died of fright
at the station and perhaps another died in route. Reports seem to indicate
that only four moose eventually arrived in Newfoundland -- two cows and
two bulls.
The photograph to the right shows one of the first moose to arrive in
the province.
The release reads, in part: "The photo shows a yearling cow which
was one of four moose released in the Howley area of Newfoundland in 1904,
as an experimental attempt to introduce this species of big game animal
to Newfoundland. The success of this project is now a matter of record,
since the animal shown in the photograph became one of the original progenitors
of a moose population currently estimated to be in excess of 40,000
