Corporate body

Bloedel, Stewart and Welch Ltd. [master]

1911-1951

American owned logging operation begun in 1911 Bloedel, Stewart & Welch was incorporated in British Columbia in July 1911. J.H. Bloedel, a Washington state lumberman, was the driving force while railway contractors John W. Stewart and Patrick Welch were silent partners. The company's most extensive logging operation was at Myrtle Point, south of Powell River, while it held timber land on Vancouver Island at Menzies Bay, Union Bay and in the Alberni Valley. The Alberni Valley was to become the major area for company operations including the Somass sawmill, the Franklin River logging operation, the Great Central sawmill, and by 1948, an integrated pulp and paper mill which utilized the wastes of the Somass sawmill. J.H. Bloedel was President about 1943 when he became Chairman, and Prentice Bloedel, his son, who had been Secretary and Treasurer since 1930, became President and Treasurer. Prentice Bloedel was instrumental in initiating and negotiating the merger with H.R. MacMillan Export in 1951 to form MacMillan & Bloedel.