Preview
Creation Date
1-1-2011
Description
Turpentine Industry Marker (Reverse), Gainesville, Fl.
( Side 2) continued from front.....
" From 1909 until 1923, Florida led the nation in pine gum production. In 1909, the peak year in the U.S.A. gum yielded 750,000 barrels of turpentine and 2.5 million barrels of rosin. The 1910 census listed 27,2ll men and 3l6 women, mostly blacks, working in the industry with 65 percent in Florida. Fairbanks, Florida was a turpentine still town with the Mize family operation processing ten 50-gallon barrels of crude gum at a time. This still required six crops of 10,000 faces (an area where streaks of bark are removed) and each crop covered 400 acres. As recently as 1951, 105 fire stills operated around Gainesville. The Mize family operated the Fairbanks still until 1950. Many of the buildings (the cooper’s shed, machine shop and worker homes) still stand. Ellis Mize (1882-1967) donated land with a lake bearing his name to the University of Florida’s forestry education program. In 1948, they deeded this private cemetery on that property to the Fairbanks Baptist Church. Because of his love for the pine tree industry, Mize had his granite tombstone carved to resemble a working face pine tree. This marker is dedicated to all who toiled to provide an income for families and communities and resinous products worldwide."
Sponsors: FLORIDA SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FORESTERS AND THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Latitude, Longitude
29.72583333, -82.25500000
Recommended Citation
Taylor, George Lansing Jr., "Turpentine Industry Marker (Reverse), Gainesville, FL" (2011). George Lansing Taylor Collection Main Gallery. 4436.
https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/historical_architecture_main/4436
