The first site we visited here in Nauvoo was the Brickyard.  The wood here wasn't very good, so the pioneers who could afford it made their homes of brick.  And they made the brick from three ingredients that were here in abundance:  clay, sand, and water.  They would mix those ingredients together in a big "bowl" in the ground, kind of like a Bosch.  What they had then was called "tag" and they had some frames that they threw the tag into to form a brick.  Those were still soft, but they let them dry out for awhile.  Once they were dry enough they would stack them up into what looks like a little house, and built a fire inside.  That fire kept going day and night for quite awhile, and it took about 60 cords of wood to get them made.  Some bricks that were closest to the fire came out too dark, some that were on the outside weren't hard enough to keep out rain, and some were just right.  When a house was made they made the walls three blocks thick.  They used to just right ones on the outside, the ones that were took dark were hidden in the middle, and the ones that were light were on the inside.  There are missionaries here who make bricks all day.  They are small and decorated to say Nauvoo.  We have one in our living room at home.  But instead of building a fire and using all that wood, they bake them in an electric kiln that gets hot enough to take only a couple of days to cook.