The Wahkiakum County Eagle-November 5, 1964				Page 4

Walter E. Witham Retires Friday; Career Spans Almost Half-century

Photograph of Walter

A career which spanned nearly half a century of Northwest logging ended 
Friday with the retirement of Walter E. (Walt) Witham of Cathlamet.

Witham was guest of honor Friday night in Longview at a dinner held by 
Crown Zellerbach honoring his 49 years of service to the firm and its 
predecessor companies.

On Sept. 16, 1916, Witham went to work for a fireman on a "donkey" 
engine for the Cathlamet Timber Company, one of the predecessors to CZ 
in the Cathlamet are.  Between then and July of 1918 he also worked in 
the rigging crew and as a whistle punk.

Later he became fireman on a logging locomotive.  For the following 40 
years Witham worked as a fireman or engineer on railroad logging 
operations for Crown Zellerbach and its predecessors at Cathlamet, Coos 
Bay, Ore., Young's River in Oregon and Neah Bay on the northern tip of 
Washington's Olympia Peninsula.

He was an engineer at Cathlamet in 1958 when Crown Zellerbach closed 
out its last logging railroad in Washington and Oregon.  From that time 
until his retirement he worked as a weighmaster and log bundler at the 
Brookfield log boom and Cathlamet log sorting yard.

Over 30 friends and former associates were present at the dinner 
honoring Witham.  Among them were his brothers, Bert and George, both 
former engineers and his sons, John and Donald.

Howard Peterson, logging manager, presented him with a large brass 
plaque made from the plate off the No. 16 locomotive.  Wallace Nutter 
presented him with a 48 year service pin and a retired associates 
plaque.


(As transcribed by the Wahkiakum County Historical Society 2007 from 
original newspapers collection.)