The first brickyard established at Clearwater was in the early summer of 1898. The owners of this yard were local entrepreneurs Argue and McIntyre who had acquired this site, located one and a half miles north of the village. By June 1898 all the equipment was in place to start producing bricks. By mid-August the plant began turning out 25,000 bricks per day and their business was so successful that the proprietors threw a party to celebrate. The supply of clay at this site was said to be “inexhaustible” and they produced many varieties of brick including No. 1 hard bricks, No. 2 Northern brick, common-building brick, paving brick, rough hard/common, hard/standard, hard/selected brick and hand-worked brick. Plant production decreased by 1899 and it was only turning out 10,000 to 11,000 bricks per day with a total output of 100,000 bricks in their first kiln of the season. They employed 12 workers and used 50 cords of wood to achieve these results and had plans for a second kiln which was meant to fire 130,000 bricks. However, by 1901 the business seems to have closed.
Manitoba Brick Yards by Randy Rostecki, Manitoba Historic Resources Branch Report, May 2010.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 9 May 2020
Manitoba Bricks and Blocks
A history of the manufacture of bricks and concrete blocks in Manitoba, based on research by Randy Rostecki for the Manitoba Historic Resources Branch and supplemented by information compiled by Gordon Goldsborough of the Manitoba Historical Society. .
Bricks | Blocks | People | Glossary
We thank Hugh Arklie, Gordon McDiarmid, and Heather Bertnick for their help in the development of this online guide. Financial support of the Thomas Sill Foundation is gratefully acknowledged. Additional information was provided by Ina Bramadat, David Butterfield, Neil Christoffersen, Frank Korvemaker, Ed Ledohowski, Ken Storie, Lynette Stow, and Tracey Winthrop-Meyers.
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Randy Rostecki, Manitoba Historic Resources Branch, Gordon Goldsborough, and Manitoba Historical Society.
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