PETER KIRK FOUND IN FRIDAY HARBOR

We took a quick trip down to the cemetery to leave flowers on the headstone of an older co workers father.  His mom and dads ideal retirement place was on San Juan, but sadly the father passed before his plans came to fruition.  With the rest of the family in Wisconsin, I wanted to leave some flowers on the rarely visited headstone in the Friday Harbor cemetery.

The cemetery, while a bit dry, is quiet and beautiful.  It's interesting to see the different headstones over time and the town cemetery covers the last half of the 1800's through the present.

Mom noted one larger plot that once looked grand was now over grown and not at all well tended.  There was a large white, presumably marble, monument and on one side the name 'Mary Kirk' was visible.  She died in 1907. On the other side the name was 'Peter Kirk', 1840-1916.  There were other headstones on the plot as if other family members were interred there.

Peter Kirk. Could it be?  A quick internet search confirmed it was the same Peter Kirk. A steel mill owner in England, he came over to the US with a vision to form a city to rival Pittsburgh, but on the west coast.  He knew Steel.  Reported iron ore deposits in the Cascades, plenty of water, coal to fire the mill, and Lime in the San Juans.  Everything he needed to build a steel empire.

Politics and timing got in the way.  The one thing he needed was a rail spur, but the powers in Tacoma wouldn't run a line on the eastern shore of Lake Washington. That forced him to move his plan away from the water, away from the city he had planned.  The move meant higher costs and the delay proved fatal.  The economic crash of 1893 crushed his steel mill plans.

But his city began to take root and ship building provided the jobs.  Houses were built and a hamlet on the eastern shore of Lake Washington started to grow.

Peter Kirk had fallen in love with the islands during his visits to secure Lime and he retired in Friday Harbor where he died in in his sleep in 1916.

And the town he created?  Kirkland is doing just fine, having celebrated its first 100 years a few years back.