Preview
Creation Date
1-1-2011
Description
Turpentine Industry Marker (Obverse), Fairbanks FL.
This marker is located on SR 24 in Fairbanks in Alachua County , FL.
The text reads as : (Side 1)
" The naval stores industry was important to maritime power worldwide. Pine tar and pitch were used to seal wooden ships and protect sails and rigging. When settlers came to America - in Florida (1565), in Virginia (1607) and in Massachusetts (1620) - they found vast pine forests with resinous tar and pitch, a scarce commodity for European competitors with wooden fleets. Settlers at first produced pine pitch and tar by distilling resin-soaked fat pine wood from dead tree logs, limbs and knots, covering them with soil and burning them to yield tar and charcoal. After fat pine wood became scarce, pitch was made by chopping deep cavities or boxes near the base of living trees to collect gum. Only crude gum was exported until simple distillation techniques separated volatile turpentine from the residual rosin poured hot into barrels for domestic use or export. During the next three hundred years, with little change, this forest product industry prospered, first in the Carolinas, then Georgia and Florida to become a major U.S. industry. Production of gum was greatly accelerated and tree life protected when the Herty clay cups, introduced in early 1900’s, replaced cut boxes. "
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 (Obverse), Fairbanks, FL" (2011). George Lansing Taylor Collection Main Gallery. 4437.
https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/historical_architecture_main/4437
