Happy New Year!

This is my first post in quite a while, as my web site has been going through a lot of changes.  My webmaster is working very hard at getting our web platform switched over to a new one, and he is amazed at the amount of information we have accrued so far.  Even more amazing is the fact that we are probably just scratching the surface of this topic.

So, let’s talk about the year 2010 in review.  The year started out pretty quiet, as it is hard to do too much while it is still winter.  As the spring, summer, and fall seasons came and went, I made quite a few treks to portions of Minnesota I had never seen before.  My garage also accumulated quite a selection of new “old” bricks.  I have taken a truckload of new pictures of old Minnesota brick structures.  In late fall, I decided to switch to a new web platform that will hopefully make our information more available to web searchers.  Our goal is to quickly reach all the people that are looking for this information.

To close out 2010, I was able to witness the end of the Palace Hotel in Crookston.  This is really what I hope my web site is able to stop.  I hope to spread knowledge about the brick world and maybe at some point tips and contacts for saving old brick structures.  Crookston is one amazing city as far as old brick structures go, as it almost looks like it did 50-100 years ago.  There are not many towns that hold so much history as Crookston.  However, the pieces did not align to save the Palace Hotel over the last 10 plus years.  It just got to the point where the old hotel was a danger to people and was torn down.  I will try to post some of the pictures I took of that event sometime in the future.

Looking ahead to 2011, I have big plans for improvement.  First and foremost is getting my web site back online.  There is a ton of information that I will have to look over to make sure it goes as planned.  Then there will be quite a bit of catching up to get the information I accumulated over 2010 onto the new site.  I have many new brick pictures and structures to post.  I still have a bunch of maps that I also need to post.  There will also be more “warm” season brick trips planned bringing additional stories and information.

I am really hoping these new changes will bring our web site to the front.  This may seem like a strange topic area, but just about everywhere you look history looks back at you.  What are the stories that can be told?  I find this to be a fun topic area and hope you do too.  I am trying to become a good source of information for historical brick information in the state of Minnesota.  I also hope to be interactive, so I would love to hear any comments or suggestions from you!