 Gradually, additional people settled in the area, and by the end of the 1880s a small number of logging, farming and boat-building communities were established.In 1886, Peter Kirk, a British-born enterprising businessman seeking to expand the family's Moss Bay steel production company, moved to Washington after hearing that iron deposits had been discovered in the Cascade Range.Other necessary components such as limestone, needed in steel smelting, were readily available in the area.