Prince George, B.C. – West Fraser, which has grown to become the largest lumber producer in North America, is celebrating its 60^th anniversary this year by hosting events in several communities in which it operates.

This weekend’s celebration is in Quesnel, where West Fraser was founded in 1955 when brothers Sam, Bill and Pete Ketcham bought a small planing mill on 2 Mile Flat.  The company now owns 40 mills in western Canada and the southern United States.

The General Manager of Quesnel Lumber, Chris Finch, says West Fraser has been marking the anniversary with mill tours throughout the past week.  And today, “starting at 1:15pm at West Fraser Timber Park, I think (West Fraser Executive Chairman) Hank Ketcham is coming up, just for a quick opening ceremony.  And then we’re going to have activities and games for the kids in the community.”

Finch adds “so it’s really intended for our employees, the whole community, our contractors, vendors, anybody that we’ve done business with so we’re assuming that we’re going to have a fair number of people.  We’re going to have interactive displays of our operations and our products, whether it’s plywood or lumber, MDF, pulp.  Everybody’s doing a display and we’ll have a manned booth there.”

“We’ve got giveaways for people who show up from the community, we’ve got informational cards for recruiting and of course the history of West Fraser also, which is going to be the key theme here.  And we’re going to have five food vendors here so there will be hamburgers, hot dogs and drinks.”

He says no big surprises are planned.  “No, no big surprises, really it’s just to thank the community and our employees and our contractors for 60 years.”