For those people who grew up on farms in Minnesota, you no doubt had silos on your farm. Even people in cities can recognize and understand what silos were used for. There were many types and styles of silos. They were even made of different materials, like cement, clay, or wood. As a brick lover,…
There is nothing like summer in Minnesota. Lakes, warm weather, lush summer vegetation, and….county fairs in Minnesota! I decided to combine a brick outing and a trip to the Polk County Fair in Fertile, Minnesota. The PCF runs for about 5 days around the Fourth of July, which happen to be during some of the…
In my travels to learn more about the early brick makers of west central and central Minnesota, I took a trek down United States Highway 10. This time, my trip started out at Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, where I did a little fishing from the public docks along the big lake. Not much biting this time…
I took a swing through portions of Brick Zone 5 (central Minnesota) several weeks ago and had an interesting time. I started out near Fairfax, Minnesota, looking for old brick buildings. Fairfax is like many small Minnesota towns, where main street is suffering. Most of the old brick buildings in town are located there, and…
I am excited to start chasing some of those elusive Minnesota bricks again now that milder weather has come again. I took a trip to Crookston, Minnesota, to look around what remains of Crookston bricks. Amazingly, this community still holds many of its old ties to the past. I would highly recommend a trip over…
What happened to all the old Minnesota brick makers? With greater numbers of people moving into the state, there would always be a need for brick, right? Yet, in the early 1900s, there were hints that the industry was already hurting. To find the answers to these questions, I have sought out some of the…
The process of adding additional historical Minnesota brickyard locations to this web site is really coming along nicely. I saw one source claim that nearly every growing frontier town in the state of Minnesota had a brickyard at some point. I can tell you without a doubt that this statement is an exaggeration. However, there…
Welcome to 2010! This web site devoted to historical Minnesota bricks has high hopes for the New Year. How about a peak into the future? We are still planning on adding a graphic from the early 1900s that shows where all the old brickyards were. This is not an all encompassing graphic though, some towns…
Merry Christmas from the Minnesota Brick web team…Vince and Andy! We are looking forward to the future, as we have big plans to add new Minnesota brick information as we come across it. The more you dig into this historical aspect of Minnesota, the more surprises you find. Just this week, I was looking through…
Welcome to December! In the world of historic Minnesota brick making, all the brickyards would probably be closed down now for the winter months. They would probably continue to sell any remaining bricks from the summer’s batch, but brick making was a seasonal job. With the approach of winter, the construction season was also winding…
