Early History of Polk County

On paper, Polk didn’t appear in historical records until just before the Civil War. However, its history far predates its 150-year-old name by about 11,000 years – to the last ice age. During that time, the sea levels were about 350 feet lower than they are today.

It’s largely thought the area’s first inhabitants were the Paleoindians, who had reached the northern parts of Florida about 10,000 B.C. The Paleoindians made their way to the lower, interior areas of the state and along the Gulf Coast and began making permanent settlements between 9,000 and 8,500 B.C., when the glaciers began to melt.

European explorers made their Florida entrance in the 1500s, followed by various Indian tribes. Many scholars associate the county’s Native American inhabitants with the Tocobaga people of Tampa Bay and their close relatives, the Mocosos, who lived east of the bay and along the Alafia and Hillsborough rivers. The Seminole Indians, who were descendants of Georgia’s Creek Indians, didn’t settle the areas in and around Polk until the 1700s.

Polk quickly underwent a period of growth and change during the 19th century.

The county’s first courthouse was constructed in 1867 in Bartow, on land donated by cattle baron Jacob Summerlin. By the 1880s, the development of various industries, including agriculture, citrus, cattle and phosphate, and the arrival of the railroad caused a boom in land prices.

The population of the county doubled as a new wave of visitors and workers settled in Polk. Henry Plant’s South Florida Railway crossed the county and reached Tampa in 1884, linking central Florida with a massive transportation network. Locally produced goods were shipped by rail to national and international markets – Florida oranges could now reach major metropolitan areas like New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore in less than a week. Phosphate mining also benefited from improvements in the transportation infrastructure and quickly became one of Polk County’s largest industries.