A PRELIMINARY REPORT-ON CLAYS OE FLORIDA 235 
Sedimentary kaolin also occurs two miles south of Fairbanks, on 
Hatchett Creek. The overburden here is less than two feet. The thick¬ 
ness and extent of the deposit and its relation to a nearby gray clay was 
not determined. 
Citrus, Clay and DeSoto Counties —Sedimentary kaolin has been 
reported to occur four miles east of Inverness, and seven miles west of 
Floral City, in Citrus County, in the region about Brooklyn and Lake 
Geneva, in Clay County, and in the vicinity of Arcadia, in De Soto 
County. These occurrences, however, were not verified. 
Hernando County —Sedimentary kaolin was noted eight miles south 
of Brooksville on the Brooksville-Dade City road. The deposit here is 
approximately twenty feet thick and is underlain by a bluish-gray jointed 
clay. The overburden is less than three feet. 
This formation is also exposed in an abandoned phosphate mine, 
ten miles east of Brooksville and three miles west of Rital. Here there 
is three feet of sand as overburden and twenty feet of the clay-bearing 
sand exposed. Water in the bottom of the pit concealed the lower part 
of the formation, so its exact thickness is unknown. The relation of the 
sedimentary kaolin to the hard-rock phosphate was not worked out in 
detail. 
Highlands County —Sellards and Gunter 1 report “kaolin” in this 
county, but do not give specific locations. Sedimentary kaolin is no doubt 
the-material referred to. As stratigraphic and physiographic conditions 
are essentially identical with those in Polk, Lake, and Putnam counties, 
it is not at all improbable that occurrences of this material should be 
found in Highlands County. 
Lake County —Lake County is one of the principal producers of 
sedimentary kaolin in Florida. Numerous deposits are known in the 
south-central part of the county, south of Lake Harris, and along the 
Palatlakaha River for a distance of ten or twelve miles. 
Two plants are actively engaged in mining this material about two 
miles east of Okahumpka, near the junction of the Palatlakaha River 
and Lake Harris. One of these is the Florida China Clay Corporation 
and the other is the Lake County Clay Company. The plants are about 
one mile apart and both are located on spurs of the Atlantic Coast Line. 
1 Sellards, E. H., and Gunter, Herman, Petroleum Possibilities of Florida, Flor¬ 
ida Geol. Survey Fourteenth Annual Report, p. 107, 1922. 
