Brickton, Minnesota, was a center of high-quality brickmaking in the Midwest from 1887 to 1927 before becoming a ghost town. European settlers discovered a vein of extremely high quality clay between Princeton and Long Siding, and among them were skilled brickmakers with wood from nearby cleared homesteads available to fuel the kilns. What had been missing was a way to transport large quantities of brick to customers until the Milaca Line of the Great Northern Railway, connecting Elk River to Milaca, reached Brickton in 1886 and allowed the industry to develop quickly. In a good, hot, dry summer, the five brickyards could make 20 million bricks between April and October, and between 1889 and 1929, hundreds of millions of the highly regarded Princeton Cream bricks were produced at five brickyards within a mile of the town center. The large two story brick building at the center of town was the Princeton Mercantile Company, serving as the general store, post office, and center of commerce.