Tracking Down Brickyard Locations

I can usually track down some information on most of the old brickyards in Minnesota. Do you know what is the hardest thing to figure out? Where the old brickyards were actually located. If they were only open for a couple of years, it makes finding that information even harder.  Sometimes newspaper stories gave hints at locations, like “on William Anderson’s farm.” County plat maps can also show a brickyard's location.

One tool I have been using lately are the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. Many of the larger towns in Minnesota had these maps made for them which showed the various business locations. However these were not a catch-all.  Many brickyards were located outside of the town limits, so they were not included on the Sanborn maps.  I plan on adding more of this information to www.mnbricks.com in the near future.