Port Howard

Port Howard

Port Howard (Spanish/Argentine name: Puerto Mitre; sometimes Puerto Howard in Spanish) is the largest settlement on West Falkland (unless Fox Bay is taken as one settlement, instead of two). It is in the east of the island, on an inlet of Falkland Sound. It is on the lower slopes of Mount Maria (part of the Hornby Mountains range).

Port Howard is the centre of an 800-square-kilometre (200,000-acre) sheep farm, with twenty permanent residents and over 40,000 sheep. Sometimes this population is doubled by transitory residents.

The settlement has two airstrips which receive regular flights from Stanley, and it is also the West Terminal of the new East-West Ferry. The Falkland Islands Government built a network of all weather roads around East and West Falkland, Port Howard is at the northern end of the West Falkland network. Attractions in the settlement include a ford, and large sheep shearing sheds. Many of the houses have attractive green roofs, and there are also a number of hedges about.

Every three years, Port Howard hosts the West Falklands Sports. This week-long celebration of the end of the shearing season combines serious horse-racing with other festivities.

The Warrah River and Chartres River are nearby fishing rivers.

Port Howard was founded by James Lovegrove Waldron, and his brother in 1866; the Waldron brothers later left for Patagonia, but left the farm under local management. In 1986, it was bought by Robin and Rodney Lee, who let the local population buy shares. In 2004 the farm was taken over by Myles and Christopher (Critta) Lee, Robin's sons, after the retirement of Rodney Lee.

In 1956, JL Waldron Ltd built a school at Port Howard, possibly inspired by the "gift" of the FIC at Darwin, a few years earlier.

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Wikipedia