Mulberry Phosphate Museum, Mulberry, Florida

We see Mosaic all over Florida as we travel around. We always wonder what does Mosaic do? Mosaic is the world's leading producer of concentrated phosphate and potash crop nutrients, essential for agriculture. They mine and manufacture fertilizer and animal feed, helping farmers improve crop yields. I saw that there was a phosphate museum near us in Florida, and Jim and I finally got to visit it to find out what importance phosphate has in our lives. And why Mulberry? A little town out in the middle of Florida.

The City of Mulberry has long been known as the “phosphate capital of the world.” It is home to the Mulberry Phosphate Museum which houses an outstanding collection of fossilized remains, area memorabilia, and educational exhibits on the phosphate industry.

As you walk through the museum, you will experience the Earth’s past, viewing the remains of various types of marine life as well as reptiles and mammals dating back millions of years. Your visit will be an introduction to the relationship of animal remains with the modern Phosphate Industry.

This video summarizes Mosiac's role in aiding global food production.

Fertilizer Production: They are North America's largest producer of phosphate and potash, providing vital nutrients that support approximately half of the world's crop yields.

Mining Operations: Mosaic operates large-scale potash and phosphate mines in Saskatchewan, Canada, and Florida/Louisiana in the U.S.

Agricultural Solutions: They develop products like MicroEssentials and K-Mag to improve soil health and nutrient management.

Global Distribution: Mosaic manages a worldwide network of shipping terminals, warehouses, and sales offices to deliver products to farmers.

What actually is phosphate? Phosphate is a rock that can be turned into phosphorous. Phosphorus is an element that is needed for plants to grow. Phosphorous is used in many products, like toothpaste, and is an essential ingredient in all fertilizers that help our food grow.

Where did it come from? 

At least 10 million years ago, the ocean flooded the area now called Florida. As the waters washed the state, billions of phosphate particles were deposited on the land. The retreating waters eventually buried these phosphate beds under tons of sandy soil, mostly in Central Florida. 

In the United States, small amounts of phosphate can be found in North Carolina, Tennessee, Idaho, Utah and Montana. Phosphate can also be found in other countries around the world, including China and Eastern Europe. Morocco is the country that produces the most phosphate outside the United States. About 25% of all phosphate rock comes from Florida.

Where is the phosphate located? Most phosphate ore deposits are located 15-30 feet beneath the surface.

There are many myths about phosphate. These signs name the myth, and an explanation of the fact.

They sound so similar, so I have to ask -- what is the difference between glyphosate and phosphate? Glyphosate (the stuff that is sprayed on crops that is harmful to humans) is produced from elemental phosphorus. Glyphosate is a man-made organophosphonate herbicide (active ingredient in Roundup) used to kill weeds, whereas phosphate is an inorganic nutrient (phosphorus compound) essential for plant growth and fertilizer production. Glyphosate is absorbed through foliage, while phosphate is absorbed through roots, though both compete for soil absorption sites. Phosphate helps plants as well. 

Phosphate (phosphorus) is applied to plants primarily through soil-applied fertilizers (granular or liquid) before or during planting to enhance root growth, energy transfer (ATP), and flower/seed development. Because phosphorus is relatively immobile in the soil, it is best applied directly to the root zone (banded) or incorporated into the soil, rather than simply scattered on top. The Role of Phosphorous in Plants.

This is interesting -- Phosphate plants produce energy which can be used to power houses.

Land pebble mining began in 1890. The industry originally extended from the Withlachoochee River to as far south as Port Charlotte. Early phosphate mining centered around Mulberry and Bartow, Florida.

Early phosphate harvesting on the Peace River brought low cost production to the Florida industry. Phosphate mining facilities hoisted mined rock up to be run through screens, washed, and dried before being hauled to the main rail heads.

The demand for phosphate products fueled the economy. All common forms of surface transportation were used to move phosphate products: railroad, ship, barge, pipeline and truck.

Since 1926, the phosphate industry primarily used draglines for mining. Florida's phosphate industry began in the late 1940s.

The Company Store

The mining superintendent of the American Agricultural Chemical Company brings a large fossil leg bone out of the phosphate mining pit near Pierce, ca. 1935.

First Aid, Mulberry, early 1900s

Main Street, Mulberry

In the 1840s, pioneers settled on the picturesque lands surrounding the Alafia River. With glistening waters that gave life to plush foliage and citrus trees gracing its banks, the Alafia stretched westward before flowing into Tampa Bay. Forty years later, miners began arriving in what is now Mulberry, Florida, after phosphate was discovered in the Bone Valley area. The industrial activity of the town encouraged economic growth and soon demanded the need for a railroad to accommodate Mulberry's expanding lumber and mining trade. In 1901, the town was officially incorporated, bringing a respected identity and well-deserved peace to people of the area. Named for the lone tree that served as a local mail drop, the town of Mulberry was born.

The Mulberry Tree

The Mulberry Tree, namesake and symbol of the City of Mulberry, was a fully mature Red Mulberry when the Winston & Bone Valley Railroad began hauling phosphate rock from the mines in Bone Valley to Winston and on to Port Tampa in 1893. The tracks ran just west of this large tree. The small community near this tree quickly became the center of the fledging phosphate mining industry, and the Railroad soon began to drop off and pick up freight "at the Mulberry Tree." It is said that the tree was the scene of several hangings and lynchings during the wild early years of the mining industry. However, the tree soon came to symbolize the community, and, in 1901, the town of Mulberry was born. In 1909, the Seaboard Air Line Railway ran its railroad west through Mulberry, passing just south of the tree. Over the years, millions of tons of phosphate, on its way to markets throughout the world, passed near this tree, which lived to be well over 90 years old.

I was wondering what a Mulberry Tree actually looked like, so I looked it up. Here it is ~~ It also has fruit, which looks a lot like a blackberry.

We walked through two sections of the museum before coming to the third building, which housed the fossils brought up when excavating for the phosphate. There was a woman in there cataloging the items in the museum because it is eventually going to be torn down and a new museum built at a different place in town.

Megalodon Teeth

The megalodon was an ancient shark, similar to the Great White, that some scientists estimate could have been up to 50 or 100 feet long. This is at least two or three times as long as the Great White Shark, but this is only an estimate made from many fossilized teeth and a few fossilized vertebrae that have been found. The teeth were believed to have a gap of six to eight feet.

Whale vertebrae with broken shark tooth

Calcified Coral

Corals typically live in compact colonies of many identical "polyps." The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans, which secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton. Although corals can catch small fish and animals such as plankton using stinging cells on their tentacles, most corals obtain the majority of their energy and nutrients from algae called zooxanthellae. Corals can be major contributors to the physical structure of the coral reefs that develop in tropical and subtropical waters. Other corals can live in much deeper water.

Whelk Shell and Bivalve

Whelks are medium-sized, univalves with both axial and spiral ridges on their shell. When their soft body is exposed, it is white with black splotches. Whelks can be found along the Atlantic seaboard from the Arctic to New Jersey. They live subtidally to depths of about 600 feet. These mollusks have a powerful muscular foot that glides on a film of mucus which they secrete. They are primarily scavengers feeding on dead or dying marine organisms. They use their radula (tongue) to scrape flesh from their prey and this file-like tongue is replaced as it it worn off.

Worm tubes

Worm tubes have highly vascularized, red "plume" at the tip of their free end which is an organ for exchanging compounds with the environment. They do not have many predators, as few creatures live on the sea bottom at such depths. If threatened, the plume may be retracted into the worm's protective tube. The plume provides essential nutrients to bacteria living inside a specialized organ within its body as part of a symbiotic relationship.

American Alligator and Box Turtle

American alligators, usually found in freshwater swamps and marshes, are believed to prefer calm waters because of its effects on their swimming and breathing. They are also known to modify their environment by creating burrows. These are created using both snout and tail and are used for shelter and hibernation during freezing temperatures. The average size for an adult female is just under nine feet, while the adult male is usually between 13-15 feet.

Sea Cow (Dugong)

Evidently once very abundant and wide ranging, this large aquatic mammal is restricted to the relatively warm sea coasts and rivers of the world. Hunted throughout its range today, the vast herds are rapidly disappearing. Related to the elephants, the sea cow is a grazer of underwater pastures and emergent grasses.

Sea Cow (Dugong) skeleton

Sea Cow (Dugong)

The Sea Cow, related to the Manatee, can live up to 70 years in the wild can can grow up to 10 feet long. Dugongs graze on underwater grasses day and night, rooting for them with their bristled, sensitive snouts and chomping them with their rough lips. They can stay underwater for six minutes before surfacing and sometimes breathe by "standing" on their tail with their heads above water.

Early Mammoth, Lower Molar

Early Mammoth, Lower Molar

Mammoth Cranium Fragment (upper skull)

The wooly mammoth grew over nine feet tall, weighed three tons, and had huge curved tusks, and a tall, broad skull. It had shorter jaws, and the cheek teeth had a more complex ridge-and-groove pattern on their upper surfaces. It had a very thick coat of reddish-brown hair to protect itself from the cold during the Ice Age. The huge tusks were for defense as well as for digging into the snow in search of food.

Mammoth Vertebrae

Cephalopod Fossil Slab

This slab of rock was originally deposited in a warm shallow sea covering what is now Morocco. During the Devonian Period, 380 million years ago, these cephalopods swam the seas in search of food. Cephalopods were predators, and were literally the ruthless hunters of their time. The only animals that were a threat to the cephalopods were the early armored fish called placoderms. Placoderms routinely used cephalopods as dietary supplements. Most cephalopods have become extinct, but a few still survive to this day. 

The cephalopods grew two different types of shells; straight and coiled, but no matter which type they grew, they only lived in the very last and largest chamber. The rest of the chambers were empty, and connected by a tube called the siphuncle with which the animal controlled its buoyancy. Like a miniature submarine, a cephalopod could move up or down by pumping water or air into the empty chambers.

Mosasaur Tooth

The Mosasaur lived during the Cretaceous Period (65 to 145 million years ago); they are large extinct marine reptiles. They had modified limbs that served as paddles for swimming. These lizards were veraniods (a superfamily of lizards) closely related to monitor lizards. They are also now considered to be the closest relatives of snakes with similarities in jaw and skull anatomies. Mosasaurs breathed air and were well-adapted to living in the warm, shallow seas. Like the monitor lizards, they had a body shape that was more elongated and stream-lined for swimming. They ranged in length from 10 feet to over 56 feet.

Giant saltwater crocodile

This crocodile is the largest of all living reptiles. It has a long muzzle and its length is twice its base. The saltwater crocodile has fewer armor plates on its neck than other crocodiles, and its broad body contrasts with that of most other lean crocodiles. An adult male's weight is between 1,300 and 2,200 pounds and is normally 13-18 feet long. Females are typically much smaller than males with body lengths between 7-11 feet.

Pronghorn Antelope Horns

These strange six "horned" antilocaprids are from the late Miocene of Florida. The most distinguishing feature is the size and shape of their horns. Horns developed in most ruminants as they reached a threshold size of around 30-45 pounds. The horns are displayed for offense and defense, and their development relates closely to the evolution of social structure, territoriality, feeding habits, and predator pressures.

Protoceratid (Giraffe)

Kyptoceras amatorum is from the Pliocene Epoch. It is a small extinct animal of the family Protoceratidae. It is the last known member of the family and is believed to have been driven to extinction by more advanced grazing herbivores. This species' genus name comes from its bent horns, in which the two horns above the eyes curved over its head, and the two nasal horns pointed forward.

Whale Vertebrae

Giant Land Tortoise

The giant land tortoise was as large or larger than the Galapagos Islands reptile cousin and was the common Pleistocene tortoise of Florida. This land turtle could get up to six feet in length and weigh as much as 500-600 pounds. Its diet consisted of leaves, grasses, fruits, lichen and carrion. Due to the moderate climate during the warm phase of of the Ice Age or Pleistocene Epoch, they did well in Florida, but became extinct later.

Baleen Whale - Oligocene Epoch

Early whales had short, stocky bodies, and their nostrils formed a single blowhole that lay between or behind the eyes. Some ancient whales possessed teeth like those of sharks, though their bodies resembled porpoises. From these early whales the Baleen whales developed. Baleen whales, however, became toothless and began to capture small animals in food straining plates hanging down from the roof of the mouth. Baleen whales have become the largest of all living animals. Both the Blue Whale and the Humpback Whale are types of baleen whale.

Ground Sloth

These large herbivores were about eight to ten feet and heavily built. They may have weighed as much as 800 pounds, which is only medium-sized compared to the giant ground sloth. They had blunt snouts, massive jaws, and large peg-like teeth. The clawed digits of these sloths were probably an adaptation for hanging from tree branches. Scientists speculate that the ground sloths sometimes used their claws for pulling down branches or stripping off their leaves. 

The skeletal structure of these ground sloths indicates that the animals were massive. Their thick bones and even thicker joints (especially those on the hind legs) gave their appendages tremendous power that, combined with their size and fearsome claws, provided a defense against predators. They weighed more than five tons and stood over 17 feet tall.

The last thing I saw as I walked out was this time capsule. It was buried in 1976 and set to be opened in 2076.