Foley, Welch and Stewart


Foley, Welch and Stewart was an early 20th-century American-Canadian railroad contracting company. It was owned and operated by Patrick Welch and J.W. Stewart of Spokane, Washington and T. Foley of St. Paul, Minnesota.
The company was created during the reorganization of a prior company, Foley Bros & Larson. It was the largest railway construction company in North America at one time.
They built miles of track for the Great Northern Railway, Northern Pacific Railroad, Canadian Pacific Railway, Canadian Northern Railway, Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and Pacific Great Eastern Railway. The names in the partnership are commemorated in summit of the Cheam Range near Chillwack: Foley, Welch, and Stewart Peaks.
The company later came to be involved in the forest industry and was renamed Bloedel, Stewart and Welch. The company had large operations in the Powell River area of British Columbia. The company later merged with the H. R. MacMillan company, taking on the name MacMillan Bloedel Limited. MacMillan Bloedel became Canada's largest forest company until it was acquired by Weyerhaeuser.

Commemoration

The names of this partnership are commemorated at the top of the Cheam Range, near Chillwack: the :fr:Pic Foley|Foley, :fr:Pic Welch|Welch and :fr:Pic Stewart |Stewart Peaks.
The Stewart, Foley and Welch Mountains were originally named by Arthur Williamson of Vancouver, Superintendent of the :fr:Lucky Four Group Copper mine, opened by Stewart and Welch in 1917.3 The names were officially adopted on May 30, 1946, in as a "well-established name in the mountaineering community".

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