This weekend, the International Brick Collectors Association is having its Great Northern Get-Together Summer Swamp in the Grand Marais Municipal Campground. This is the second time the event has made its way up to Cook County. 

Community members Jeff and Dana Bartheld are helping the IBCA host the swap locally. Jeff said that 30 members are registered for the event, and more could still sign up. There are brick collectors coming from as far away as Louisiana for the swap. 

The Grand Marais event is just one of three for the association this year; the first was at the National Building Arts Center in Sauget, Illinois, in April, and the third will be in Kilgore, Texas, in November. The club is made up of 700 members of passionate brick collectors from across the world. 

At the swaps, members lay out the items they want to exchange (bricks that were historically manufactured across the United States and around the world), and when the swap starts, bricks can be traded or gifted at free will. Collecting bricks from unique manufacturers or from as many locations as possible is usually the goal. New brick collectors with thin collections usually have an opportunity to leave a swap with a larger collection than arriving with, no money exchanged. What was once a simple building material now carries the history of its place, its manufacturer, and its time period. 

Like many industries, brick making has been consolidated into fewer, larger companies. Small brick factories used to exist across Minnesota to produce durable building materials from local resources. However, it is still a prominent industry in the southeastern and east-central United States, where clay deposits are utilized for brick making. Manufacturing in this area is also supported by the hot and humid climate in the Southeast US. Bricks can’t rot or be damaged by termites, as wood products can, and the extra labor of laying bricks is worth the increased longevity in these regions. 

Jeff Bartheld said that many collectors have 50-100 bricks from different manufacturers. Clen Reinkemeyer, an 88-year-old from Tulsa, Oklahoma, has shown the extreme end of brick collecting. He has collected over 8,800 bricks and has set a Guinness World Record for the largest brick collection. Jeff said that Reinkemeyer often attends the swaps, but age has limited his travel. 

Jeff said that members of the public are welcome to attend, but they must be IBCA members to participate in the official swap. 

See the association’s website for more information on the group. https://www.ibcabrickname.com/