BARTOW

city, seat (1861) of Polk county, central Florida, U.S. It lies near the Peace River and Lake Hancock, 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Lakeland. In 1851 the Readding Blount family built a stockade community known as Fort Blount on the site of an earlier settlement (Peas Creek). It was incorporated as a municipality (1867) and named for Francis S. Bartow, a Confederate general. It was incorporated as a town in 1882 and became a city in 1893. Phosphate mining, citrus cultivation, and truck farming are now the city's economic mainstays. The nearby Bone Valley Phosphate Museum exhibits fossil remains and traces the history of the phosphate industry. Pop. (1992 est.) 14,898.