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World War II Destroyer Warship1945
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Handmolded brick produced for the CNR (Canadian National Railway).8 December 2003
Claybank Brick Plant Site
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Firebrick production enabled the effective operation of machinery which utilized steam heat, such as boilers for locomotives, ships and building furnaces. Firebricks manufactured at Claybank were used to line the boilers and fire boxes of Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railway passenger and freight steam locomotives which helped open western Canada. Both the CP and the CN contracted with Claybank to deliver locomotive firebrick until the 1960's, when the era of steam locomotives ended in North America.17
View inside a Steam Locomotive Fire Box1930
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Locations of Fire Boxes on Locomotives1930
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Claybank Brick used to line CN and CP Steam Locomotive Fire Boxes1930
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A launch pad under construction at Complex 39.1978
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High grade Claybank refractory bricks were used as part of the construction of 30' thick launch pads at Cape Canaveral for the moon shots in the 1970's. During the last 30 years of its production the Brick Plant was owned by a multi-national company, AP Green Refractories, that supplied refractory brick to NASA.In the AP Green history book 'The Refractories People' Claybank is mentioned:
"Green of Canada also boasts (if that is the word) of the coldest firebrick plant in the hemisphere, having aquired a factory at Claybank, Saskatchewan in 1955".
The book goes on to say:
"it is not that there is such heavy snowfall in Claybank, it's just that the snow on the ground never stays in one place. The strong winds produce blinding 'horizontal snow' ".
This horizontal snow is of course what we refer to as 'ground drifting'.
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Claybank refractory brick was used in the lower levels of 30' thick Launch Pads for moon shots.1978
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AP Green owned the Brick Plant for 30 years.3 December 2003
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Areial view of the Plant 20032002
Claybank Brick Plant Site
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The Claybank Brick Plant National Historic Site is comprised of a complex of industrial buildings, associated residences, rail lines, clay extraction pits and natural landscape. Situated on the northern Great Plains of North America, it is located in south central Saskatchewan. The Site is representative of the brick manufacturing industry in North America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Established in 1912-14, it remained operational until 1989.Specifically, the site includes the brick factory, 10 down-draft kilns and associated smoke stacks, four residences and a bunk house, an office, laboratory, carpenter shop, two stock sheds, garage, boiler plant, water tower, filter house and pump house, as well as a spur rail line and remnants of the narrow gauge rail line, and the five open mine pits. The complex is bordered on the south by the Dirt Hills - the source of the clay, and on the north, east and west by agricultural lands essentially unaltered during the past century. Inside the complex is a vast collection of working historic machinery, hand moulds and other brick making equipment, as well as an assortment of bricks manufactured on-site. These things makes us unique and very special.
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Tom McWilliams1910
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In 1886 the Dirt Hills (Claybank) Clay deposit was discovered by Tom McWilliams and his family. It is said that Tom had a friend at Pasqua, a village some 30 kms northwest of the Site, this friend had a spy glass and with this glass you could see "a hawk pick off a gopher in the Dirt Hills!" Some of Tom's cattle had strayed away and he thought they may be in the 'hills'. While he used his friend's spy glass to look to the Dirt Hills searching for his lost cattle he noticed clay outcroppings and decided to take a day trip to have a look. The area was experiencing a drought that year and times were tough, he thought he would take his family along, they could pick Saskatoon berries and sell them in Moose Jaw to make ends meet. |
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