In 1936, Weyerhaeuser incorporated the Chehalis Western Railroad as a publicly regulated, common-carrier shortline to carry lumber and forest products over a 10-mile stretch of track from Chehalis, Washington to Ruth, Washington that Weyerhaeuser had purchased from the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, also known as the Milwaukee Road.
[2] The extinct Doty Bridge, once listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was part of Weyerhaeuser's ownership of the lines through the area.
[6] The Chehalis Western Railroad name was resurrected in 1980, when the Milwaukee Road abandoned all of its trackage west of Miles City, Montana.
Curtis was used as a log reload yard and loads were daily (Monday through Friday) brought to Western Junction.
Only 42 carloads of raw logs were hauled in daily Monday through Friday to Tacoma after the conversion of the Curtis reload.
And this was despite the fact they spent a sizeable sum to replace a rather large bridge that had burned in 1979 near Eatonville, WA that crosses the Little Mishael River over a rather deep canyon.