A Look to Kirkland’s Past | The Great Western Iron & Steel Company’s mill

The Great Western Iron & Steel Company's mill was located on Rose Hill, near Forbes Lake and Costco, seen about 1892.

By Matthew McCauley • January 3, 2011 5:04 pm
The Great Western Iron & Steel Company's mill was located on Rose Hill
The Great Western Iron & Steel Company's mill was located on Rose Hill

The Kirkland Reporter welcomes back Matthew W. McCauley, former columnist for the Kirkland Courier (now the Kirkland Reporter).

The Great Western Iron & Steel Company’s mill was located on Rose Hill, near Forbes Lake and Costco, seen about 1892.

English steel manufacturer Peter Kirk, Seattle Post-Intelligencer publisher Leigh Hunt and other prominent local and east coast investors hoped to make Kirkland “the Pittsburgh of the Pacific.”

The Panic of ’93 depression and other factors doomed the mill and it never produced and steel.

Matthew McCauley is a third-generation Kirklander and author of “A Look To The Past: Kirkland.” He is also a Kirkland Heritage Society board member.