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Limestone

Suniland Magazine

1925

Second only in importance to phosphate as a source of mineral wealth is the production of limestone. The entire state of Florida is underlaid with limestone and scientists have estimated that the rivers of Florida carry into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico approximately 5,000,000 tons of lime a year, this lime contributing the material which nature uses in her mystic processes of land building amid the warm keys of the far southern part of the state.

Florida's lime resources have been utilized for many years, but it is only since road building has become such an economic force that the production of limestone has become an industry of importance. The center of limestone production at present is in Marion County where more than 7,000 tons of limestone a day are being quarried. An idea of the importance of the industry in this county can be gained front the fact that the producers are now paying the railroads approximately $8,000 a day in freight charges alone. Limestone rock is being quarried also in Hernando County, the rock, known as the Tampa formation, being of an unusually hard variety. Other limestones being utilized are the famous coquina rock and the Miami oolite, both of which are being used very extensively in the architectural development of the famous East Coast resorts.

Source:
Excerpt from: Agassiz, Garnault. "Florida in Tomorrow's Sun."
Suniland, Nov. 1925, Vol.3, No.2., Pgs. 37-45; 88-94; 113-133

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