Pierce

Pierce was a phosphate mining town in Polk County and one of many company-owned mining towns and villages that once populated the county. It was started in April 1906 by the Pierce Phosphate Company, acquired in October 1906 by the American Agricultural Chemical Company, and owned and operated by that company until it was disbanded in 1954-55. Pierce became one of the largest mining towns in Bone Valley, with more than 1,000 residents by 1940. Along with a drying plant for phosphate mined nearby, the town had houses, schools, a church, a commissary, and a hospital for company workers and their families. Residents received housing and utilities for a modest monthly fee. Such mining towns were necessary in the early days of Bone Valley phosphate mining because there were few roads and few automobiles, but by the 1950s workers could commute to their jobs and the mining towns were no longer necessary.

Florida · United States