Port Howard

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Port Howard (Spanish/Argentine name: Puerto Mitre; sometimes Puerto Howard in Spanish) is the largest settlement on West Falkland.

Founded by JL Waldron in the late 1860s, Port Howard and is the centre of a 200,000 acre (800 km²) sheep farm, with twenty permanent residents and over 42,000 sheep. Sometimes this population is doubled by transitory residents.

The settlement has two airstrips which receive regular flights from Stanley, and it is also at the centre of the island's scanty road network (the only real road on the island runs between Port Howard and Chartres, Falkland Islands). It has a dairy, grocery, abattoir and social club as well as an old telephone exchange. Attractions in the settlement include a golf course, a ford, large sheep shearing sheds, Mount Maria (part of the Hornby Mountains range) and a museum focussing on the Falklands War, when the settlement was occupied by around 1,000 troops. It is the proposed West Falkland terminus for the anticipated ferry to East Falkland.

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.

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