discoveries – phosphate rock and fishing - that would "put Boca Grande on the map". Phosphate was a valuable mineral for fertilizers and many other products, and was in great demand worldwide. At first the phosphate was barged down the Peace River to Port Boca Grande, where it was loaded onto schooners for worldwide shipment. By 1905 it was felt that building a railroad to Port Boca Grande and carrying the phosphate to it by rail would improve the method of shipment. In 1905, officials of the Agrico subsidiary Peace River Mining Company, along with engineers from the Army Corps of Engineers and 60 laborers, landed on Gasparilla Island, and surveying and construction of the railroad began. Probably the only buildings on the south end of the island at this time were the lighthouse and the assistant keeper's house. The railroad terminus with its pier would be built nearby. The Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railroad was completed in 1907. For the next 50 years phosphate was shipped out of the state-of-the-art port virtually without disruption. Phosphate-laden trains were off-loaded directly onto ocean-going freighters, and the ships took the valuable commodity to ports all over the world. In 1969 Port Boca Grande ranked as the fourth-busiest port in Florida. In the 1970s, phosphate companies increasingly switched their interest to ports in Hillsborough and Manatee counties. As more money was put into developing these ports, traffic into Port Boca Grande began to dwindle, and in 1979 the line was abandoned and the phosphate industry in Boca Grande came to an end. The port was also used as an oil storage terminal by Florida Power and Light Company. This use ceased in 2001. The oil storage tanks were subsequently removed from the site at the southern tip of Gasparilla Island adjacent to the 120-year-old Boca Grande Lighthouse. Island residents have begun an effort to have the property preserved as part of the island's state park system. The Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway not only brought phosphate and supplies to Gasparilla Island; it also brought wealthy people from the north. By 1910 Boca Grande Pass was already famous for its unequaled tarpon fishing among fishermen, who stayed on nearby Useppa Island. The Agrico Company, having begun to see the potential of developing Gasparilla Island beyond the port, began to develop the village of Boca Grande. The railroad station in what would become downtown was