Felipe Westhoff

Felipe Arnold Westhoff Rodhius was a 19th-century entrepreneur known for his role in the logging of Pilgerodendron uviferum and the founding of Melinka in Guaitecas Archipelago in 1860. Westhoff was an ethnic German who migrated to South America from Lithuania, which was then part of the Russian Empire.

The first part of the Ferrocarril Central Andino that was built in Peru was the railway between Callao and Lima. To build this railway Westhoff was sent to purchase railway sleepers. Westhoff arrived this way to Ancud from where he administered a Pilgerodendron uviferum logging industry in Guaitecas Archipelago in Patagonia. For the purpose of overseeing the business he founded the settlement of Melinka in 1860, the first permanent settlement in Guaitecas Archipelago.