Big Game Outfitter

Howard Elliott

Howard Elliott grew up in big game country. He was born at Millertown, on the shore of Red Indian Lake. Before starting hunting camps he was an equipment operator for the Anglo-Newfoundland Co. (A.N.D. Co.)

IN 1958, WE STARTED A HUNTING CAMP. Claude my brother, and myself. I did the cooking and everything and Claude did some guiding. He had just one year at it, but I stayed with it. I was the first one with a guide licence in Millertown.

The A.N.D. Company had hunters coming to them, but they had no place to keep them. I was on the river at the time, and Ed Ralph, our woods boss, wanted us to take a camp.

He said, "Howard, whatever you want, from a fork and a knife to a D-4 tractor, it's right there for you. It's only a matter of going and picking it up. Use away until you get it paid." That's where we started off.

I bought it off the company for a dollar and seven cents. Seven cents was tax.

My main camp was at Lake Ambrose. It was a former A.N.D. company depot. The carpenters and boatbuilders and other workers stayed in that building.

That year I started off, I had seventy-eight visitors. They all stayed at the camp. I had thousands of room.

Every weekend we'd have hunters. Then we started to spread out, until I had seventeen guides. I had three cooks and my wife. I had seven speedboats, a tractor, a J-5. I had four pickups, outboard motors and everything. The boats were for the rivers and the different lakes.