Big game hunting in Newfoundland: A Land & Sea archival episode

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians risk becoming too accustomed to our open expanses of land and sea and the wildlife regularly spotted there. But for people who spend most of their time on the busy streets of Manhattan, coming to a different kind of island has long been a welcome escape.

That was part of what brought members of the Vosper family, from New Jersey, back to Newfoundland year after year.

"It's a unique place I think, Newfoundland, more so than any place in the world," said Bill Vosper Jr., who came to hunt with his father.

"I don't think there's anything like it any place."

Vosper told Land & Sea in 1987 that part of the great experience was due to his guide, Gene Ploughman of Island Pond Lodge and the others at the lodge.

The group came back year after year, said Ploughman, who said that he thinks the annual trip is a real treat for them all.

"They're friends of ours now," he said of the American tourists and hunters.

"We know them personally and we think very highly of them."

'Cut the logs right out of the country'

Once the American hunters arrived in Newfoundland, they headed to the lodge at Island Pond, about 50 miles inland from Shoal Harbour — an area accessible only by plane.

Ploughman had built his lodge there over several years, flying in and out to work on it.

"We just cut the logs right out of the country."

It was a relaxed but comfortable environment for the visitors, who had a cook on hand to prepare fresh seafood and provide fuel after a long day in search of big game.

Moose was the primary hunt, because the lodge received more licenses for those, but Ploughman said he hoped to receive more caribou licenses in the future — it was a smaller animal that not only looked better mounted, he said, but was also easier for the guides to get back to the lodge from the backcountry.

"It's a much nicer hunt to my mind," he said.

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