In Hernando County, there are several roads named for the Camp mining family including Camp Castle Road and Camp Mine Road. These roads led to two mines that the Camp's owned.
The Camp Family came from Franklin, Virginia. George Camp and Sallie Cutchins Camp had eight sons and two daughters. In 1887 led by 3 of the sons Paul Douglas Camp (President), James Leonidas Camp (Vice-president) and Robert Judson Camp (secretary-treasurer) the family purchased a small sawmill. All of the sons were members of the family timber and sawmill operation. This operation grew into the Camp Manufacturing Company, a paper manufacturer. Two of the brothers died young, the rest of the Camp brothers became prominent in the lumber industry of the Southeast United States.
Several of the Camp brothers led by Robert Judson Camp, Benjamin Franklin Camp and William Nelson Camp, Sr., set out to Florida in search of their fortunes. They moved to an area northwest of Gainesville. There is a ghost town in this area named Campville, it may have formerly been named Albion. This town was anchored by a brick factory that was started by R.J. Camp & Bros., Manufacturers, which was led by R. J. Camp, J. S. Camp, and B. F. Camp. In addition to the factory, the town had a Post Office, General Store, and Train Depot.
The brothers were also involved in many enterprises including citrus, cattle, and building a railroad in Florida and Georgia along with the family business of timber and milling.
In 1890, William Camp with the help of the Camp Manufacturing Company started the Albion Mining and Manufacturing Company which produced phosphate. In 1903, William relocated to Ocala to be closer to the phosphate deposits in Dunnellon. William and his sons sold the phosphate they mined to many German firms making them wealthy.
After several years of living north west of Gainesville, the Florida Camp Family relocated to Ocala, where to this day they are considered prominent residents. Their residences in Ocala are on Ocala's historic homes tour.
The Camp family bought large tracts of land in Florida. William Camp purchased Merritt Island for cattle ranching, but sold it for a profit after discovering it was infested with mosquitos. By 1907, William was one of the largest landowners in Florida holding 150,000 acres in Marion, Citrus, Hernando, Sumter and Columbia counties.
William was interested in electricity. In the 1880s, William had created a hydroelectric dam that provided electricity to Roanoke, Virginia. In 1909, William developed a second hydroelectric power plant on the Withlacoochee River in the Inglis area. Inglis is about 20 miles north of Hernando County. The electricity from this plant was used to power the Camp mines in Hernando County. When William died in 1911 his children sold the plant for $1.5 million dollars to Florida Power corporation.
William's sons Clarence and Jack founded the Camp Concrete Rock Company which operated the limestone mines. The abandoned Camp Castle mine and the current Cemex mine were both former Camp Mines. Although the Camps never lived in Hernando County, they shaped its development.