With its upcoming annual fundraiser dinner next weekend, the Timber Heritage Association has another big reason — several tons actually — to bring in cash for the local history preserving group.

The California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento has donated a historic logging Dolbeer & Carson No. 3 steam locomotive to the THA, which compliments perfectly a Dolbeer and Carson caboose it already owns.

But the sweetheart deal comes with one significant string attached.

The Railroad Museum officials would prefer that the steam locomotive be gone from Sacramento last month, which has THA members moving quickly to move it to Samoa, where the THA is already amassing its tons of historic artifacts that it hopes will one day have a permanent home as a museum.

Timber Heritage Association President Marcus Brown is hopeful the locomotive can be transported to the area within a few weeks and he already has commitments from the John Pittman Trucking company to do it.

The addition of the locomotive is reinvigorating the THA’s efforts to move its remaining steam locomotive and a boxcar full of equipment from the Glendale area property where the group had been storing its artifacts to Samoa, where it is leasing space from the Harbor District.

“This should be the flame on the front burner that gets all of our locomotives moved to the Samoa roundhouse,” Brown said.

Brown said the Glendale-area landowner, who purchased the parcel from Simpson Timber approximately a year ago, has been very patient in allowing the THA to move its artifacts.

Despite the daunting and difficult task of hauling it all to Samoa, there is a silver lining.

“In the long run, it was the probably the best thing that happened,” Brown said.

The THA has been leasing several spacious and historic warehouse buildings recently acquired Harbor District and is swapping repairs to the dilapidated structures for rent.

The buildings are just a few yards from the popular tourist attractions the Samoa Cookhouse and the Humboldt Bay Maritime Museum, which Brown believes could be the site for a nationally recognized historic tourist destination.

With its favorable relationship building with the Harbor District, the THA officials believe they are getting to a point where they can start building a home for what they feel is a precious community treasure.

Brown isn’t shy about his hope that Samoa will be the home.

Brown points out that the recently completed Redwood Dock Marine Terminal Study completed by the Harbor District that he said is pivotal for the THA because it not only indicated that a historic museum is a good idea for the district’s modernization plans, but that it would probably serve as the most desirable gateway or welcome center for the cruise ships that had the potential to lure in tens of thousands of visitors annually.

The THA’s annual dinner and auction event is scheduled for this coming Saturday and money raised will go towards its Timber Heritage Museum & Excursion Train and effort to transport the Dolbeer & Carson No. 3.

This year’s dinner theme is “Saving Humboldt’s Timber Treasures.”

The event begins at 5 p.m. at the Fortuna River Lodge in Fortuna with a no-host bar and a dinner at 6:30 p.m.

The costs for the dinner is $45 per person or $360 for a table of eight.

A silent auction will be held during dinner and a live auction will follow immediately after dinner.

Ticket information for the event can be downloaded on the THA Web site at www.timberheritage.org, or obtained by phoning 707-443-2957.