Brick. There is no lack of materials for making common red brick. In some places the surface of the drift clay is used, containing some fine gravel, and at others the loess-loam. Brickmaking machinery was met with in the survey of the county at the following points: Lanesboro, Thomas Dunsmore. (The Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, The Fourth Annual Report, For The Year 1875, N. H. Winchell & M. W. Harrington, The Pioneer-Press Company, St. Paul, 1876, Page 71)
Densmore Thomas…Lanesboro (Minnesota State Gazetteer and Business Directory including Dakota Territory 1880-81, Volume II, R. L. Polk & Co. and A. C. Danser, St. Paul and Detroit, Page 978)
Brick. There is no lack of materials for making common red brick. In some places the surface of the drift clay is used, containing some fine gravel, and at others the loess loam. Brick-making machinery was met with in the survey of the county at the following points: Lanesboro, Thomas Dunsmore. (The Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, Volume I, 1872-1882, N. H. Winchell and Warren Upham, Johnson, Smith & Harrison, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1884, Page 321)
The loess covers the eastern two-thirds of the county (Fillmore), where it forms a mantle varying in thickness from 2 to 20 feet over the Paleozoic formations. Its greatest thickness is seen at the base of the slopes along the valley. On the high prairie land, although it is not so thick, it is much more evenly distributed. Many abandoned yards have used it in the past. Such yards occur at Rushford, Peterson, Whalen, Lanesboro, Fountain, Spring Valley, Carimona, Forestville, Harmony, and Mabel. Material for red brick is still available at each of these places. (Clays and Shales of Minnesota, Frank F. Grout and E. K. Soper, The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1914, Page 100)