Fillmore County. A soapy, variegated clay also occurs at J. W. Smith’s brick yard, two miles northwest of Spring Valley, though a drift clay, with some gravel, is used in the manufacture of brick. Besides these clayey deposits, which are believed to have resulted from the degradation, or more or less perfect preservation, of the lower Cretaceous clays, there are a number of white sand deposits in the same portion of the county, which probably are referable to the incoherent layers of the Nishnabotany sandstone. One of these occurs north of Mr. J. W. Smith’s brick yard, on section 17, Spring Valley. (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 57)
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: Sec. 20, Spring Valley, J. W. Smith. (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)
Smith James, Brick Mnfr, 2 ½ miles n w of Village. (Minnesota State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1878-9, Volume 1, R. L. Polk & Co., and A. C. Danser, Detroit, Michigan, Page 592)
Spring Valley. Smith James, brick mnfr. (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 681)
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: Sec. 20, Spring Valley, J. W. Smith. (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)