Date: October, 1999 Author: Fred Lobdell
This area lies within a DuPont operation. It is also on Camp Blanding. The Florida National Guard owns the land, but DuPont has mineral rights, or some such. From the village of Starke on US 301, I drove east on county 230. (This didn't seem to be signed in Starke, but the turn off is one block north of the turn off for FL 100.) I went about 5.5 miles to a gated entrance to Camp Blanding, then turned right (south) where a sign said "DuPont" and had an arrow to the right. I followed down this road, bearing right at the bend, for about 2.3 miles to the DuPont plant. The 300-foot contour is shown on the topo as being a short distance northwest of the plant. Here there was a "No Trespassing" sign on the fenced plant area. I parked inside the fence and mounted a small hill to see what I could see. What I saw was, first, a large pile of aggregate in the right direction that was the hill shown on the topo, and second, a pick-up coming toward me. The pick-up was driven by a black man who was apparently a foreman or shift supervisor. I explained what I was doing and that I was disappointed that the hill I'd found was not a natural area. Unfortunately the whole area shown on the topo as "strip mine" has been stripped, and there isn't a natural surface there. The foreman or whatever explained the property ownership situation to me; as he was also in the National Guard, he was knowledgeable about that also. He could read a topographic map, which is more than can be said for many of my introductory students, and together we looked at the map and tried to figure out where a naturally high area might be. But the whole area is fenced and posted by the National Guard, so it seemed that trying to obtain permission after first determining the high point might be the way to go. The man I was talking with seemed nice enough and probably would have given me permission to go over and stand on the sand pile, but there seemed no point to it as it was obviously artificial. More work needs to be done before the Clay County HP can be claimed.