Lithia is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Hillsborough County, Florida Hillsborough County is located in the west central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. In the 2020 census, the population was 1,459,762, making it the fourth-most populous county in Florida and the most populous county outside the Miami metro ...

, United States. It is a suburb of

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough C ...

. The ZIP codes are 33547, 33596, and the

area code A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, r ...

is 813. It is part of the

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, suc ...

(CDP) of Fish Hawk. Lithia is home to the Alafia River Corridor and

Chito Branch Reserve The Chito Branch Reserve is located in southeastern Hillsborough County, Florida, and is part of the Southwest Florida Water Management District landholdings. It was acquired by the District in 2001, and is . It is located at 11254 Browning Road in ...

Description

Lithia is a small unincorporated community and home to Lithia Springs Regional Park,

Alderman's Ford Regional Park Alderman's Ford Preserve, is a preserve and park in Hillsborough County, Florida, in the United States. The park has two public access points for automobiles, from Thompson Road and from Florida State Road 39 as well as numerous access points for ...

, and the C.W. Bill Young Reservoir. The elevation ranges from less than above sea level at Lithia Springs to south of the post office. The community has a rich history in agriculture, saw mills, and phosphate mining. In the late 1990s, Newland Communities purchased to develop Fishhawk Ranch. Fishhawk Trails was developed by another company, and more public works and retail stores are currently in development.

History

Prior to the advent of white settlers in 1846, Lithia had been variously inhabited by Native American tribes, such as the

Tocobaga Tocobaga (occasionally Tocopaca) was the name of a chiefdom, its chief, and its principal town during the 16th century. The chiefdom was centered around the northern end of Old Tampa Bay, the arm of Tampa Bay that extends between the present-da ...

, Muskogan (Creek), Tomokan, Caloosa, some of whom were mentioned by the Spanish in the 1600s, and later the

Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...

. Settlers from

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

arrived in 1847. In 1848, James Alderman created a ford on the

Alafia River The Alafia River is long, with a watershed of in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States, flowing into Tampa Bay. The watershed contains ten named lakes and ponds, and 29 named rivers, streams and canals. During the rainy season, excess w ...

at the site of present-day Alderman's Ford Park. By the time of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

, Alderman's cattle ranching operation ran to around 30,000 head of cattle. Around 1900,

lithium Lithium (from el, λίθος, lithos, lit=stone) is a chemical element with the symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense soli ...

was discovered in the waters of a spring (now known as Lithia Spring Major), which resulted in the naming of the community to "Lithia". On February 21, 2017,

United Parcel Service United Parcel Service (UPS, stylized as ups) is an American multinational shipping & receiving and supply chain management company founded in 1907. Originally known as the American Messenger Company specializing in telegraphs, UPS has grown t ...

tested a vehicle-launched drone delivery in Lithia. Lithia is the closest community to the coordinates listed as the launch site by Jules Verne in his 1865 novel ''

From the Earth to the Moon ''From the Earth to the Moon: A Direct Route in 97 Hours, 20 Minutes'' (french: De la Terre à la Lune, trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes) is an 1865 novel by Jules Verne. It tells the story of the Baltimore Gun Club, a post-American Civil W ...

''.

Geography

Lithia is located at (27.85, -82.19); or about ESE of

Education

Public schools: *Barrington Middle School (6-8) *Bevis Elementary (K-5) *FishHawk Creek Elementary (K-5) *Lithia Springs Elementary (K-5) * Newsome High School (9-12) *Pinecrest Elementary (K-5) *Randall Middle School (6-8) *Stowers Elementary (K-5) Private schools: *

Foundation Christian Academy Foundation Christian Academy (FCA) is a private Christian school serving pre-kindergarten through high school students located in Valrico, Florida, United States. It was established in 1992. Foundation Christian Academy enrolls over 400 student ...

(Churches of Christ, K-12) *St Stephen's Catholic School (Catholic, K-8)

Economy

Lithia is headquarters for

The Mosaic Company The Mosaic Company is a Fortune 500 company based in Tampa, Florida which mines phosphate, potash, and collects urea for fertilizer, through various international distribution networks, and Mosaic Fertilizantes. It is the largest U.S. producer ...

's international

phosphate In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid . The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phosph ...

division. While most of the community consists of commuters to jobs at

MacDill Air Force Base MacDill Air Force Base (MacDill AFB) is an active United States Air Force installation located 4 miles (6.4 km) south-southwest of downtown Tampa, Florida. The "host wing" for MacDill AFB is the 6th Air Refueling Wing (6 ARW), assig ...

and elsewhere, there is still a large agricultural component with strawberry growers, citrus, tropical fish, blueberries and other crops. Lithia has also become a shooting destination, with one public and several private shooting ranges, as well as a sporting clays range.

Notable people

Mike Beltran Mike Beltran (born June 26, 1984) is an American politician in the state of Florida. He is a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives representing the state's 57th district, which includes part of Hillsborough County. History A ...

, politician *

Orlando Greene Orlando Greene is an Olympic runner from Barbados who raced in the 1976 summer Olympic games in Montréal. History Greene was born into poverty in Bridgetown, on the Caribbean island of Barbados, where at a very early age he made a name for himse ...

, Olympic runner * Will Worth, football player

References

External links

Lithia Springs Regional Park
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Hillsborough County, Florida Unincorporated communities in Florida