HistoryLink Tours

A group of local businessmen opened the Northwestern Milk Condensing Company at this site in 1909 to serve local dairy farms, and there’s been a dairy plant here ever since. In its early years the plant condensed milk, made butter and ice, and canned fruits and vegetables. The business became quite successful and was leased out during part of the 1910s and through the 1920s. Local owners bought the company in the 1930s, enlarged the plant, and renamed the business the Issaquah Creamery.

The business later became known as the Alpine Dairy, and by 1960 it had become Issaquah’s largest employer. Though numerous area dairy plants were closing by this time, the Alpine Dairy was expanding, and in the early 1960s the company merged with Darigold. This was a good move, since Darigold was a well-established company that was able not only to weather the changes in the dairy industry but also was able to continue the expansion of the Issaquah plant. The plant took over butter production for a large swatch of Western Washington in 1970. In addition to butter, the plant produces cottage cheese, sour cream, and yogurt.