MINERAL INDUSTRIES. 
PHOSPHATE. 
Phosphate mining is Florida’s leading mineral indus¬ 
try, the value of this product now exceeding six million 
dollars annually. Fully twelve million tons with a value 
of not less than forty-eight million dollars have been 
taken from the Florida fields from the beginning of active 
mining in 1888 to the close of 1907. 
References to phosphate in Florida began to appear in 
literature as early at least as 1883. The Proceedings of the 
National Museum for 1882, published in 1883, contain 
(p. 47) an analysis of a phosphatic rock found at Haw¬ 
thorne. The volume on Mineral Resources by the U. S. 
Geological Survey for the year 1882, published 1883, con¬ 
tains a reference (p. 523) to phosphatic marl occurring 
in Olay, Alachua, Wakulla, Duval and Gadsden Counties. 
These references are repeated in Mineral Resources for 
1883-84, and in addition, the occurrence of phosphatic 
rock between Wakulla and the St. Marks River in Wa¬ 
kulla County is recorded. During 1884 and 1885 explo¬ 
ration of the Florida phosphate was made by Dr. Law¬ 
rence G. Johnson of the United States Geological Survey. 
At this time the line of phosphate was traced from Live 
Oak, in Suwannee County, to Ocala in Marion County. 
From samples examined and from popular reports phos¬ 
phate was believed to occur from Thomasville, Georgia, 
through Hamilton, Suwannee, Alachua, Marion, Sumter, 
and Polk Counties to Charlotte Harbor in DeSoto County. 
Most of the phosphates examined by Johnson were of low 
grade and occur, as he himself recognized, in formations 
later than the Vicksburg Limestone. The high grade rock 
phosphate was not discovered by Johnson at this time. 
Some of the localities mentioned as being examined by 
Johnson are Preston Sink, 2-J miles north of Waldo; Ft. 
Harley, 3J miles northwest of Waldo; the Devil’s Mill 
Hopper near Gainesville; Simmons’ Quarry, 3 miles west 
