Logging crew with saws outside saw filers workshop, Walville Lumber Company, ca. 1919
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The town of Walville is located in Lewis County, 4 miles southwest of Pe Ell on the Pacific County border. It was originally called Rock Creek and was the site of the Rock Creek Lumber Company. Later it took its name from its founders, Michigan lumbermen Walworth and Neville Wallville. The town began in 1898 and folded in 1930. The company town probably supported about 200 persons and attained some fame for the large hex symbol of an arched black cat that adorned the mill gate. Utilizing Japanese millhands on the nightshift, the Wallville mill counted 74 Japanese workers in 1909. The sawmill was located at the base of a ravine along the railroad tracks. The town of shacks, bunkhouses, and mill office-store was sited across the tracks within the Y formed by Rock and Salmon creeks. The school and several houses once stood about 200 yards west along the south side of the present highway. [Source: Erickson, Kenneth A. Lumber Ghosts: A Travel Guide to the Historic Lumber Towns...