On June 12 the city of Coon Rapids celebrated its 50th birthday.
The story of brickmaking in Coon Rapids is based on the research done by Kerry Conner for the Coon Rapids History Project.
On Aug. 16, 1884 the great fire of Anoka destroyed the Lincoln Mill and lay the whole business part of the city in ashes from the Rum River east to Third Avenue.
From the ashes of this tragedy sprang the impetus for the growth of the Coon Creek brickyards which were the first purely locally based industry in Coon Rapids.
Around 1881 Dr. D.C. Dunham of Anoka established the Anoka Pressed Brick and Terra Cotta Company.
A small, two-man operation, it was located near the point where East River Road branches off from Highway 10, the site of the “clay hole.”
About three years later a man named Benson started a brickyard north of the railroad tracks and in 1925 the Minnesota Ceramics Company went into operation.
It was an ambitious venture employing about 100 men in the manufacture of pottery, but it only lasted about 10 years.
Brickmaking, before the discovery of electricity, was a time-consuming and laborious task.
The first job was the mining or “winning of the clay.”
This was seasonal work.
All clay intended for working the next year was dug out before winter.
The constant freezing and thawing helped to break down the clay allowing the stones to be removed more easily the next spring.
The “glory-hole” method was used at Dr. Dunham’s Coon Creek clay hole that stood close to where the old Coon Rapids City Hall was located on Coon Rapids Boulevard.
A conical pit of substantial dimensions was dug allowing the sides to cave in and be excavated.
The clay hole had reached 90 feet when digging was discontinued after hitting a spring.
(It is rumored that the crane used for digging is still down there.)
Charles Barney, a longtime resident of early Coon Rapids, remembers that brickyard.
He says that after excavation, the clay would be transported by cars on a track, unloaded, mixed with water, and sent through rollers.
It would roll through a machine that would compact it into a ribbon as thick and long as brick.
Wires would cut off individual bricks from the ribbon of clay.
The bricks were then piled by hand and fan dried with hot air.
From here they were transported to huge coal-fired kilns where the brick was “burned” (a common brickmaking term for kiln fired.)
It would take several days for the fires to temper the brick.
The entire life of the brickmaking industry in Coon Rapids was only about 35 years.
By 1920 the yards were all out of business, eradicated through labor strife and competition from yards in other areas.
Although the brickyards are long gone evidence of their existence is all around us.
Just take a walk through downtown Anoka and enjoy the beauty of the fine red Coon Creek brick that makes up so many of the old buildings.
Source:
Anoka County history
June Anderson, Anoka County Historical Society
ABC Newspapers (Anoka County Union/Blaine-Spring Lake Park Life/Coon Rapids Herald)
Wednesday, October 7, 2009