Bone Valley - History

History

When the narrow gauge Florida Southern Railway reached Arcadia in 1886, it was only a sleepy little town and the builders paused only briefly before pushing the railroad south to Punta Gorda. Unknown to the railroad and the general public at this time, a great discovery had been made in 1881 by Captain Francis LeBaron of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, who was surveying the lower Peace River area for a canal to connect the headwaters of the Saint Johns River to Charlotte Harbor. Here he found and shipped to the Smithsonian Institution nine barrels of prehistoric fossils from the sand bars prevalent on the lower Peace River. He also noticed that there was a phosphatase quality to the fossils and the deposit they were found in was very valuable. The Smithsonian wanted him to return and lead an expedition for prospecting more fossils, but Captain LeBaron was unable to return due to important duties at Fernandina where he was put in charge of harbor improvements.

Finally in December 1886, LeBaron was able to return to the Peace River where he dug some test pits and sent the samples to a laboratory for analysis. His suspicions were confirmed as the tests showed high quality bone phosphate of lime. LeBaron tried in vain to round up investors in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, but none were willing to invest in the project. Frustrated, he left the United States for the ill-fated Nicaraguan Canal Project.

Meanwhile, the test results became known to Colonel G.W. Scott who owned the G.W. Scott Manufacturing Co. of Atlanta and he quickly sent a representative down to Arcadia who made several large purchases along the Peace River. Colonel T.S. Moorhead of Pennsylvania had also learned about the deposits from Captain LeBaron, but not the secret of their location, traveled to Arcadia where he stumbled onto the famous sand bars. Mr. Moorhead formed the Arcadia Phosphate Company, with the Scott Mfg. Co. quickly agreeing to purchase the entire output. The first shipment of Florida phosphate was made in May 1888 when the first ten car loads were dispatched to Scott's Fertilizer Works in Atlanta, Georgia. Soon after, G.W. Scott formed the Desoto Phosphate Co. at Zolfo where the Florida Southern Railway crossed the Peace River. The biggest player was the Peace River Phosphate Co. (formed in January 1887) which was located in Arcadia by M.M. Knudson of New York and they quickly built a narrow gauge railroad from the works on the river to the interchange with the Florida Southern. It is this company and its railroad that is the first direct ancestor of the future Charlotte Harbor & Northern. The Peace River Phosphate Co. began mining in the Winter of 1889, and most of the ore was shipped to Punta Gorda via the Florida Southern, where it was loaded onto ships for export to Europe.

Early mining was with pick and shovel where the above-water sand bars were mined by hand. The material was carried on barges to the nearby drying works. Soon suction dredges were put into use and the mining spread along the lower Peace River.

Moorhead soon sold his Arcadia Phosphate Co. to Hammond & Hull of Savannah, Georgia a large fertilizer operation in that city. Moorhead then left Florida and returned to Pennsylvania, where he developed a phosphate mine in Juniata County, PA and formed the narrow gauge Tuscarora Valley Railroad. Hammond & Hull also owned the Charlotte Harbor Phosphate Co. which had their works at Hull, connecting with the Florida Southern by a short branch line. Wanting to connect the two plants, Hammond & Hull built a narrow gauge railroad between Arcadia and Hull around 1890. The railroad served various load outs along the river, where the barges carrying pebble were unloaded into ore cars for the journey to the drying plants at Arcadia and Hull. Hammond dropped out around 1890 and the new firm was known as Comer & Hull.

The Peace River Phosphate Co. in the mean time had built a narrow gauge railroad north of Arcadia to their load-outs along the Peace River. Like the Comer & Hull operations, the ore was hauled to the drying plant at Arcadia where it was loaded into the narrow gauge boxcars of the Florida Southern. When the railroad converted its Charlotte Harbor Division to standard gauge in 1892, both the Peace River Phosphate Co. and Comer & Hull operations converted their respective railroads. Joseph Hull of Comer & Hull purchased a half interest in the Peace River Phosphate Co. about this time.

In December 1894, Joseph Hull consolidated the Arcadia Phosphate Co., Charlotte Harbor Phosphate Co., Desota Phosphate & Mining Co. & Peace River Phosphate Co. into the Peace River Phosphate Mining Co.

Peter Bradley of New York was one of the fertilizer capitalists (Bradley Fertilzer Co.) that Captain LeBaron had first approached about the sand bars, but was initially rebuffed. In May 1899, he was involved in the merger of 22 fertilizer companies into the American Agricultural Chemical Co., becoming vice president and a director of the new corporation.

AACC began buying the stock of the Peace River Phosphate Mining Co. beginning in June 1899 and finishing in January 1902.

The Peace River Phosphate Mining Company Railroad consisted of a mainline running south from Arcadia to Liverpool. A few short branches connected the railroad to the Florida Southern (later the Plant System in 1896 and the ACL after 1902) at Arcadia, Hull and Liverpool. At Hull was the washing plant where sand was removed. Liverpool housed the drying plant and barge loading facilities. A branch running north for about 3 miles (4.8 km) upstream from Arcadia served the many load outs along the river.

In the early years, phosphate from the Peace River area was barged to Punta Gorda, or shipped by rail to Port Tampa. Other important ports were later established at Seddon Island, Boca Grande, and Rockport.

Today, there are two companies which mine phosphate rock in the region, Mosaic Inc. (formed from the merger of IMC-Global and Cargill Crop Nutrition) as well as CF Industries. At present, Mosaic is seeking to mine properties further south, in Hardee and Manatee Counties.

With renewed interest in corn-based Ethanol fuel, the demand for fertilizer is expected to increase.