Lawtey Highland Mine

The Highland Operation was a heavy-mineral sand mine near Lawtey, in Bradford County, Florida — part of the Trail Ridge Mining District, a belt of ancient shoreline sand deposits that's been one of the country's major sources of titanium-bearing minerals for decades [1]. Discovered in 1946 and brought into production in 1949, it was a dredge-mining operation covering roughly 2,800 hectares, with DuPont building a processing plant northeast of Lawtey on the deposit in 1956 [1][2]. This is industrial mining history, not a rockhounding destination — it's a large-scale commercial sand-mining operation on private land, and nothing found indicates any public collecting access, past or present. The Trail Ridge heavy-mineral belt is still actively worked by other operations nearby, so don't confuse "the district is active" with "this specific historic pit is open."

UNVERIFIED. Near Lawtey, Bradford County, Florida, along the Trail Ridge geologic feature — no public access route found, consistent with this being private industrial mine ground.

None documented. This was (and the surrounding Trail Ridge district still is) a large-scale commercial dredge-mining operation, not a hand-collecting locality. No source found describes any public rockhounding access, historic or current.

This is private industrial mining land — Florida's heavy-mineral sand industry (historically DuPont, more recently operators including Chemours and Tronox) continues to actively work the broader Trail Ridge district across Bradford, Clay, Baker, and Duval counties [1][3]. No source confirms the current operator or operational status of the specific Highland pit near Lawtey, and nothing suggests public access exists. Treat this as a historical mineralogy reference, not a place to visit.