Florida Rock Piles

Neat guide...now if only most of the Florida sites were not privately owned commercial entities or currently off-limits due to a new zeal among Florida Legislative enforcers. For example:

The Guide lists the following:

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY
TAMPA: �� Ballast Point (and Davis Is.) area, in the City Park⎯agatized coral
heads, carnelian-red geodes; �� regional shores at low tide⎯agatized coral: (a) access
via Bayshore Blvd., and (b) access via Interbay Blvd.⎯coral, chalcedony, enhydros,
fossil shell (chalcedony replaced); �� N, along the Hillsborough R., banks and breaks⎯
brain coral, finger coral, agate.

What is not listed in this already out-dated Guide (published as recently as 2005):

It is currently against the law to remove rocks of any size from any public site on Davis Island. Pedestrians are not to attempt access to the shores of the Bay via Bayshore Blvd. Access along Interbay Blvd is denied except to property owners. Access along the Hillsborough River is restricted by virtue of closed parks and/or Park restrictions.

But yes, if one is very, very lucky, one MIGHT find an occasional collectable stone when no one is looking.

And as of the current calendar year and the foreseeable future, all land in, on, and adjacent to phosphate mines in the State of Florida is closed to all amateur fossil and rock hunters...due to the highly toxic and environmentally threatening nature of phosphate and phosphate tailings.


It is possible to find some rocks here in Florida. I wouldn't suggest anyone planning a Great Rock-Hounding Adventure to include Florida on the agenda, however. Even close to the Georgia border this is a limestone based peninsula just recently exposed from the sea. There are no volcanoes to have tumbled bedrock here. An earthquake in Florida would send us right into the Gulf or the Atlantic. Heck, earthquakes elsewhere are considered a possible causative agent for our suddenly appearing sinkholes.

BUT if any one is interested in collecting silicates, from almost pure white, to pinks, to beiges tans, earthy browns, grays, or even blacks...then Florida is the place to be! Many of our beaches are still open to the visiting public and if you glance down at most of the "earth" across the entire state, you are bound to find sand by the buckets-full! ;D

Lady B

That sucks that the sites are private, I guess thats one thing Saskatchewan has in its favor and all of Canada for that matter. Up here generally anywhere with water is public land, in some provinces you have some of the bank too. But you can always wade for rocks. And 89% of the country is public land, I guess you just don't realize how good we have it for collecting.

You still have us beat on the snow though..