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The restoration of the Oswego Iron Furnace is being honored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation at its awards banquet Friday in Spokane.

The award will be presented to the City of Lake Oswego‘s Historic Furnace Restoration Task Force, Miller Consulting Engineers Inc. and Pioneer Waterproofing Inc.

The workers on the project were tremendous, said Susanna Kuo, a writer and researcher who served as the project’s historical consultant. 鈥淢any of them went above and beyond what was necessary,鈥� she said.

The restoration of the 44-foot-tall structure costs $918,000. Restoration workers spent nine months between 2009 and 2010 rebuilding and stabilizing the structure. It is the only surviving iron furnace west of the Rocky Mountains.

Kuo was brought because of her interest in industrial archaeology. 鈥淚 could predict where some of the features would be,鈥� she said. In the process, she fell in love with the furnace. 鈥淚t became my passion after I joined the Oswego Historical Society.鈥�

The course of聽 love never runs smoothly, she added.

鈥淭he masonry work required constant creative problem solving,鈥� said Kuo. 鈥淩econstructing the vaulted arches was especially difficult because it had to be done without the support of the wooden forms called 鈥榗enterings’ used to build the original arches.鈥�

Repairing the interior walls was also a delicate and dangerous undertaking, she said.

鈥淗owever, the missing firebrick lining of the shaft was not restored because that would have meant covering the original walls with new materials,鈥� Kuo said. 鈥淚nstead, this inwall and other missing features were illustrated in the interpretive display.鈥�

Lake Oswego, despite its upscale reputation, started out to be the largest iron producer in the West. The furnace was built by the Oregon Iron Company in 1866 at the confluence of Oswego Creek and the Willamette River. It closed just 19 years later.

It was the first iron furnace on the Pacific Coast. Between 1867 and 1885, it produced 42,000 tons of pig iron, sold as “Oregon Iron” to foundries in Portland and San Francisco. Before 1867, all iron on the Pacific Coast was brought by ship around Cape Horn.