[4][5] In Washington Territory, iron ore had been discovered near Snoqualmie Pass by Seattle pioneer Arthur A. Denny and coalfields were being worked in the Issaquah Alps and elsewhere in the King County Cascades foothills,[6][7] although metallurgical coal used on the West Coast in the 1880s was imported from Australia.

[8] Kirk became aware of the mineral resources and local demand on a trip to the area in 1886, during which year his British company supplied rails for the construction of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway.

[9][10][8] By 1887 thousands of tons of rails were being shipped from Britain, and a newspaper reported Kirk's company would begin production in King County within two years.

[13][14] In August, 1888, incorporation papers were filed for the Moss Bay Iron and Steel Company of America, with Denny, Kirk, and Leigh S. J.

[26][b] Historical society documents state that foundations and other remnants of the mill are reported to exist in the vicinity of the Kirkland Costco warehouse (or the nearby Rose Hill Presbyterian Church[28]), but could not be found.

[30] Other works associated with the mill included lakefront warehouses built in 1890 for equipment and raw materials to construct the mill, a sawmill producing approximately 3,000,000 board feet of lumber by early 1891,[25] miles of water pipeline from Lake Washington and Forbes Lake,[25] and a railroad depot at Piccadilly Street (today Slater and 7th Avenue/NE 87th Street) for the expected Northern Pacific Railway connection.

[16][c][31] Transportation issues with railroads,[6] the delay in building the planned Lake Washington Ship Canal (in turn due to the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, after which the canal was derided by some as the "Kirkland ditch"[32]), failure to completely analyze demand and properly lay the foundations for the business,[33] and competition between Tacoma and Seattle,[d] have all been listed as reasons why Great Western never began to produce steel.