I'm surpised no one has yet commented on the well documented use of bricks
on 19th century river boats as ballast, and their uses.  For example, the
entire historic district of Helena, capital of Montana, is said to have
been built from historic brick which was shipped on river steamers up as
far as they could go on the Missouri, to the Great Falls, where it was
dumped ashore, salvaged, and wagoned over the mountains to the gold town
of Helena; and of course then metal goods, furs, hides, etc. went down
river; there wasn't enough market yet to send full cargoes upriver to the
frontier.  I frequently get requests from the mountain west to identify
one or another St. Louis brick company, as most of these bricks were in
fact  manufactured here.  And of course, we also have mid-19th and early
19th-century buildings constructed of timbers salvaged from flat boats and
steamboats in the St. Louis area.

dave browman