Page 578. Brick-making was begun in 1881 by Pangburn & Moore on the east shore of Sauk lake in the south edge of section 26, Kandota, three miles northeast from Sauk Center, where their product of bricks is chiefly used or sent away by rail. Their excavations are forty to seventy rods north of the county line. The clay-bank rises steeply from the water's edge to a height of 15 to 20 feet, and from its top a level surface extends back ten to twenty rods, which is the width of the stratified clay. The surface farther east is rolling till, which also seems to form the opposite shore, about two-thirds of a mile distant. At the south end of the most southern excavation the black soil is directly underlain by a bed of yellowish gray clay about ten feet thick; next is a bed of yellowish sand, about 5 feet thick, exposed along a distance of four or five rods; and under this is clay like that above. In both these clay deposits occasional limy concretions are noticeable, forming little irregular sheets, an eighth to a quarter of an inch thick and one to four inches broad, embedded in horizontal position. In the northern part of this excavation, which extends in all about fifteen rods, the whole thickness of twenty feet from the lake-level to the top of the bank is levelly bedded clay, mostly weathered to a yellowish gray color. Some of the concretionary sheets before mentioned were also seen in this portion. Farther north, an excavation ten rods long is also wholly clay. Here its lower part contains many cylindric ferruginous concretions, reminding one of limbs and twigs of trees, films of iron-rust being arranged in the clay in the concentric manner of the rings of the growth in wood. In the upper ten feet of this excavation, above these concretions, the clay is very distinctly and finely laminated, and includes occasional ferruginous lamimae up to a third of an inch thick, also laminae of coarse sand up to a fourth of an inch thick. A bone six inches long, bearing marks of gnawing, was found in this northern excavation about ten feet below the surface, being the only fossil detected
Page 579. here. This clay was probably deposited in a channel melted out from the surface of the ice-sheet at its thinned margin, while ice yet filled the hollow in which Sauk lake lies. The bank newly undermined by the lake at several places within a half mile to the north consists of clay somewhat laminated horizontally, but containing considerable gravel and here and there stones as large as a foot in diameter, being perhaps a subglacial deposit. The amount of clay free from gravel and adapted for brick-making is sufficient for extensive work many years. The brick are cream-colored, excepting near the outside of the kiln where they are red. No addition of sand is needed for tempering. (A Report on the Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, 1882-1885, Volume II, N. H. Winchell and Warren Upham, Pioneer Press Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1888)
Bricks are also made by Pangburn & Moore on the east side of Sauk lake, in the south edge of Todd county, about three miles north of Sauk Center. (The Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, 1882-1885, Volume II, N. H. Winchell and Warren Upham, Pioneer Press Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1888, Page 470)
To The Brick Yard. For years David Pangburn has been engaged in the manufacture of brick about four miles north of this city on Sauk lake and during that time he has given employment every season to a large number of men who have always spent their money in our city. It is an acknowledged fact that the bricks made by the Pangburn system are as good, hard and substantial as can be procured elsewhere, and yet we will venture to say, that notwithstanding prices for brick of the local make are less than can be obtained elsewhere, few are used here. The question arises, why. Not on account of quality, price or the essentials necessary to enter into a good article but all because the road to the brick yard is so abominable that teams can scarcely haul a thousand at a load. It is a sand road, and when we say sand, we mean sand – that fine, soft delicate sand that will allow a light buggy to sink to the hubs of the wheels, and this is the road Mr. Pangburn has had to use for years. The town supervisors have given him no encouragement or relief in trying to lighten his burden in hauling, until this spring, and now he affirms they have changed the road, and made it so much worse than it was formerly that he has about decided to go out of the brickmaking industry. It is to be regretted that the town supervisors of Sauk Centre can not give Mr. Pangburn some aid and assist him in getting a good road to his place. While it is true his yards are in Todd county it is also true that they do not lie over forty rods beyond the Sauk Centre line of the road. He has tried every season by using gravel, straw and other material to build up and maintain a good road, but meeting with little or no help, he feels now as though our people did not care for his brick yard and the money the city derives from its close location, and he expects to close it up. Something should be done by the town board to place the brick yard road in good condition. (The Avalanche (Sauk Centre), Thursday, April 26, 1900, Page 3)