Steel Lake is a

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

located in the city of

Federal Way Federal Way is a city in King County, Washington, United States and part of the Seattle metropolitan area. One of the most recently incorporated cities in the county, its population was 101,030 at the 2020 census. Federal Way is the 10th most p ...

in southern

King County, Washington King County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. The population was 2,269,675 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of counties in Washington, most populo ...

, United States. Steel Lake Park is located on its southern shore.

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels thro ...

is located just to the east of the lake, and Lake Dolloff is located on the other side of I-5.

History

The first homesteaders moved to the Federal Way area in 1871. The lake was named for Arthur Steele, one of these early settlers. In 2022, the city of Federal Way planned to develop the Steel Lake Annex, an plot south of the main Steel Lake Park. The city proposed a new operations and maintenance facility on this site, which would house trucks, tractors, and other heavy equipment. The plan encountered great local opposition, as the annex is a popular public space that includes ballfields and a

skate park A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, scootering, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairsets, quarter pipe ...

; the city abandoned the proposal in 2023. In May 2022,

raw sewage Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged from residen ...

leaked into the lake, which forced it to be closed temporarily from May 27 to June 6.

Description

Steel Lake has many recreational opportunities. The 52-acre Steel Lake Park includes a beach and play area, and is especially popular in the summer. The lake also has many fishing opportunities. It is stocked with

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...

, and is also home to

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus nigricans'') is a carnivorous, freshwater fish, freshwater, ray-finned fish in the Centrarchidae (sunfish) family, native to the eastern United States, eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada an ...

and

yellow perch The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Samuel Latham Mitchill fr ...

. It is one of only ten lakes in King County that has a seasonal fishing closure to protect fish populations. The lake is mesotrophic.

References

{{reflist Federal Way, Washington Lakes of King County, Washington Lakes of Washington (state)