Natural Resources

The early pioneers that settled this vast country of ours were without a doubt strong and hardworking. The most remarkable quality however, was their ingenuity. Their ability to make do with what they had. When they found stone they built homes of stone. When they found wood in abundance they lived in log and wood homes. And a great many when they came to the prairie and found nothing from which to build a home, they ingeniously built homes of sod.

There was no transportation to bring the tools and materials that they needed to build a house from. They had to make do with what they had.

When the early settlers found Clay township, they, whether they knew it or not, found a wealth of natural resources to fill their needs. Within a radius of a few miles, they found an abundant supply of timber for
building material and fuel and a river to power their sawmills and gristmills.

They found springs for their household water supply, and mineral resources such as coal for fuel. Clay for
brick and pottery, and limestone which could be used as building stone or calcium for plaster and mortar.