A phosphate ghost town

Sun photo by Michael McLoone

DESOTO COUNTY -- Not much remains of Liverpool, a phosphate mining town located along the Peace River in southern DeSoto County.

"This is where the phosphate barges came up the river," Capt. Dennis Kirk said. He is a co-owner of Nav-A-Gator, located on Kings Highway, just north of the Charlotte-DeSoto county line.

Kirk offers boat and nature tours along the river. He can point out the small island rookeries where egrets, white ibis and other birds like to nest. Kirk also likes to share what he knows about the history of DeSoto's town of Liverpool on the eastern shore of the Peace River.

Kirk worked his skiff into the bronze, tea-colored shallows of the river where a few brick pilings are all that remain of Liverpool's bustling docks. He pointed to a stand of cattails that mark a sunken barge which once shipped phosphate, citrus and cattle down river to Boca Grande. When the river is low, Kirk said, remnants of the wooden barge can be seen above the water.

"This is one of the deepest parts of the river, and it is about 25 feet deep," Kirk said.

The Liverpool property itself is now owned by DeSoto County and marked for preservation, Kirk said. Walking the property, brushing aside vines and branches, he showed where lemon trees now grow wild. Moss covers the brick remains of Liverpool's cisterns. All of what remains of the town is shrouded beneath cabbage palms, stands of oaks and other vegetation.

It is a reminder of the birth of the phosphate industry in Florida.

Capt. J. Francis LeBaron, a chief engineer for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is credited with the first discovery of phosphate ore while he and his crew were surveying along the Peace River, south of Fort Meade, in 1881.

"In 1886, John C. Jones and Capt. W.R. McKee on a hunting trip along the Peace River found phosphate between Fort Meade and Charlotte Harbor," Driver wrote. The two men formed the Peace River Phosphate Co. and bought more than 48 miles of river bank. Other phosphate companies began sprouting along the Peace, as did towns.

According to what information Kirk has gathered, Liverpool was founded shorty after by John Cross, originally from Liverpool, England, Kirk said. Cross envisioned his hometown's Florida namesake becoming a bustling center of commerce. But the town died out in the 1920s, when the phosphate industry found richer deposits in Polk and other Central Florida counties.

DeSoto County historian Harold Melton knows Liverpool and the history of phosphate mining in DeSoto County. He is now publishing "Footprints and Landmarks: Arcadia and DeSoto County," his 100-year history of the county. Melton said Liverpool primarily served one of the 30 or more phosphate mining companies in DeSoto at the time.

"The town never had a mayor," Melton said, explaining how J.E. Riley, who oversaw mining operations, acted as a mayor and law enforcement officer. Melton said he never found out how many people lived in Liverpool.

Railroad lines to Punta Gorda and Boca Grande, Melton said, led to the demise of Liverpool.

Similar mining communities were common up and down the Peace River in DeSoto and Hardee counties, Melton said. Many of the communities, originally established as military outposts to protect settlers from Seminole attacks, became centers for the phosphate industry. More than 30 phosphate companies dredged ore from the bottom of the Peace River.

The phosphate boom for DeSoto County only lasted 20 years and began to dissipate as industry began focusing its efforts further north.

The idea of the phosphate industry moving back down the Peace River and expanding its operations worries Melton. He said he's afraid of what will happen to the land in the future, even after mining companies attempt their reclamation efforts.

You can e-mail Steve Reilly at reilly@sun-herald.com

By STEVE REILLY
Staff Writer