The Camp Castle hard rock mine was built in 1925 by the Camp Concrete Rock Company. Much of Brooksville’s history is related to the mining industry which has driven the development of the County and its economy for over a century. The Camp family in particular played a major role in bringing electric power to Brooksville.
According to Historian Frasier Mountain, The Camps owned large tracts of land including the mouth of the Withlacoochee River in Inglis. In the early 1900’s, the Florida Power Corporation asked the Camps for permission to build a dam on the mouth of the river to generate power. The Camps allowed this on the condition that power be brought to Brooksville and their hard rock mine known today as Camp Castle. As a result, a substation was built on Croom Road and their hard rock mine became one of the first mines in Florida to get electricity. The 3,400-acre Lake Rousseau was formed by the construction of the Inglis Dam in 1909. The power generating facility ceased operation in 1965.
Mr. Mountain grew up on the Camp Castle property. His father was Superintendant of the mine in the 1920’s. The “Castle” on the property was actually the hard rock processing plant. It was originally a wooden structure and Mr. Mountain’s father led the effort to reinforce the deteriorating interior with poured concrete. The photo provided by Mr. Mountain shows the elaborate wooden transportation system surrounding the cement interior with its uniquely identifiable arches. A railroad track ran beneath the structure.
Mr. Mountain described the mine pit as blindingly white. He stated that the type of hard rock mined at Camp Castle was very high quality and unique to Hernando County. During the Depression, only the railroad could afford to buy the rock which they used for construction of railroad beds.
The Camp Concrete Rock Company gradually began closing the Camp Castle mine in 1938 while simultaneously producing hard lime rock aggregate at a new location that is now the Cemex complex Northwest of Brooksville off of Cobb Road. This mine now produces not only hard rock, but also cement, clay, lime, electric power (part of the Duke Energy grid) and a myriad of concrete based products shipped around the world.
The Camp family owned many other mines throughout Hernando County. They marketed their products through a firm called Florida Crushed Stone Company, which was primarily owned by the Camps.
The “Castle” or former hard rock mine plant as it appears today:
Photos Courtesy of Frasier Mountain