Tom Keough was working as a project coordinator with the Department of Public Works, Services, and Transportation when he spotted a white moose near Picadilly in July of 1999.
He used a transit, a surveying tool that is like a set of binoculars, to zoom in on the animal. Thinking it was a caribou, he could not believe his eyes when he saw the antlers of a six-point bull moose! His first reaction was to get a good shot before the rare animal disappeared. His weapon of choice was his friend's camera. An associate of Keough's was in Stephenville, about a half-hour drive from the site. Without explaining the reason for his excitement, Tom told him to grab his photography gear and hit the road.
"We came to find out that the moose was kind of trapped where he was," Tom said excitedly. He had gone up a 45 degree embankment which was about 300 ft. long. When he got up there, there was a flat area of about 30 ft. circumference and just beyond that was a straight cliff of 25 to 30 feet. While we were going up, he tried to get over the top of the cliff, but flipped over...He didn't want to come back down the way he had gone up because of the loose rock, so he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Tom's associate got up above him, about 20 feet from where he was, and started snapping some shots.
Finally the moose decided that enough was enough, and started straight down the cliff, breaking off trees an inch and a half thick. I was standing in the field at the bottom of the cliff, and he came within eight or ten feet of me. He just took off!
Imagine it, a three-year-old, 400 pound male with poor eyesight charging down a hillside which was covered with loose rock. The chance encounter, which could have been a disaster for Tom, instead led to an inspiration! From it M.A.T Industries Inc. was formed.
Here is another story on the White Moose as told by the famous hunter and naturalist Lee Wulff
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