Lithia

Lithia takes its name from the lithia springs once found in the area, whose mineral-rich waters were believed to have health benefits in the late 1800s and early 1900s. For most of its history it was a rural landscape of phosphate mining, cattle ranching, and citrus and strawberry farming along the Alafia River. Mosaic and its predecessors made phosphate a defining local industry, while the surrounding countryside stayed sparsely settled. That changed at the turn of the 21st century when the FishHawk Ranch master-planned community brought thousands of new homes and top-rated schools to the area, transforming Lithia into a sought-after address that still retains much of its rural, large-lot character on its edges.