Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
Unincorporated community
Left to right from top: Palm Valley Bridge, Sunrise at Ponte Vedra Beach, Miliam House, designed by Paul Rudolph, 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass, Military Appreciation Day at The Players Championship, Great White Egret in a local estuary.
Location in St. Johns County and the state of Florida
Country	United States of America
State	Florida
County	St. Johns
Area
• Total	33.8 sq mi (88 km2)
Population (2010)
• Total	28,996
• Density	858/sq mi (331/km2)
ZIP code	32082
Area code(s)	904

Ponte Vedra Beach is an unincorporated seaside community in St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Located eighteen miles (29 km) southeast of downtown Jacksonville and 26 miles (42 km) north of St. Augustine, it is part of the Jacksonville Beaches area.

The area is known for its resorts including the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club, the Lodge and Club, and the Marriott at Sawgrass. It also lies within St. Johns County, which is the wealthiest county in Florida. Ponte Vedra Beach is an upper-income tourist resort area best known for its association with golf and is home to the PGA Tour and The Players Championship, played at the TPC at Sawgrass, as well as the ATP Tour.

Between the residential neighborhoods lining Ponte Vedra Boulevard there are many points of public beach access. Golf, tennis, boating, wakeboarding, surfing and water skiing are popular activities.

What is now north Florida was visited several times by European explorers in the 16th century, but there is little evidence for them specifically coming to Ponte Vedra Beach. It may have been sighted by Juan Ponce de León during his voyage to Florida in 1513, but as his precise landfall is unknown, this claim can be made by many communities on the east coast of Florida.

The area remained sparsely populated through the late 19th century, even as other seaside communities began to develop to the north. In 1914 minerals were discovered, and a community known as Mineral City grew up around the mining operations. Titanium (ilmenite) extraction was significant, as well as that of zircon and rutile. These minerals were recovered from beach sands by the Buckman and Pritchard Mining Company. The National Lead Company bought Buckman and Pritchard in 1921 and discontinued mining the minerals as demand dropped after World War I. In 1929 it began to develop the area to be similar to The Cloister in Sea Island, Georgia. Colonel Joseph C. Stehlin, who had been with the company in St. Louis, arrived on January 1, 1929 to manage the development.