Florida counties that may be included in the panhandle; the eastern extent of the panhandle is arbitrarily defined and may varyU.S. Coast Survey map or nautical chart of St. George Sound, Florida, the coast part of Tate's Hell State Forest, just southwest of Tallahassee, along the Florida panhandle (1859)
The Florida panhandle (also known as West Florida and Northwest Florida) is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida. It is a salient roughly 200 miles (320 km) long, bordered by Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Its eastern boundary is arbitrarily defined. It is defined by its southern culture and rural geography relative to the rest of Florida, as well as closer cultural links to French-influenced Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Its major communities include Pensacola, Navarre, Destin, Panama City Beach, and Tallahassee.
As is the case with the other eight U.S. states that have panhandles, the geographic meaning of the term is inexact and elastic. References to the Florida panhandle always include the ten counties west of the Apalachicola River, a natural geographic boundary, which was the historic dividing line between the British colonies of West Florida and East Florida. These western counties also lie in the Central Time Zone (with the exception of Gulf County, which is divided between the Eastern and Central Time zones), while the rest of the state is in the Eastern Time Zone. References to the panhandle may also include some or all of eleven counties immediately east of the Apalachicola known as the Big Bend region, along the curve of Apalachee Bay.
Like the rest of North Florida,[1] including North Central Florida, the panhandle is more similar in culture and climate to the Deep South than the rest of the state, particularly than Central Florida and South Florida in the lower peninsula. The Florida panhandle is known for its conservative politics, religious adherence, and "piney woods".[2]
The largest city in the panhandle is Tallahassee, the state capital, population 196,169 (2020). However, the largest population grouping is the Pensacola metropolitan area with a population of 511,502 (2020), which includes the second- and third-largest communities in the region, Pensacola and Navarre. The total population of the panhandle, as of the 2010 Census, was 1,407,925, just under 7.5% of Florida's total population as recorded in the same census. At roughly 70 persons per square mile, its population density is less than one-fifth of Florida's as a whole.[3]
Location of Florida's Emerald CoastBeach in Destin
Emerald Coast, a term coined in 1983,[4] refers in general to the beaches and coastal resorts from Pensacola to Port St. Joe,[Emerald_Coast 1] but is sometimes used to refer, by extension, to the panhandle as a whole, especially west of the Apalachicola. Earlier designations include "Playground of the Gulfcoast" and the "Miracle Strip", especially for the area between Fort Walton Beach and Panama City.[5] Coastal regions of the following counties (if not the entirety of the counties themselves) are usually included when referring to the Emerald Coast:
Coastal portions of Bay County are also regularly included when referring to the Emerald Coast, but with somewhat less regularity than the four aforementioned counties listed above.
The Forgotten Coast is a trademarked term coined in the early 1990s[6] used to refer to the coastal portion of the Florida panhandle extending from Mexico Beach or southeastern Bay County on the Gulf of Mexico to St. Marks on Apalachee Bay. It is usually not considered a part of the Emerald Coast, which lies directly adjacent to the west.[7] Coastal regions of the following counties (if not the entirety of the counties themselves) are usually included when referring to the Forgotten Coast:
The Apalachicola River is the largest river of the panhandle. It is formed by the junction of several rivers, including the Chattahoochee and the Flint, where the boundaries of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida meet. From there, it flows southward to the town of Apalachicola.
Britton Hill is the highest natural point in the state
at 345 feet (105 meters) above mean sea level.
History
For the colonial history of the area before 1821, see West Florida.
19th century
Throughout the 19th century the panhandle was sparsely populated, dotted in places with small farming communities, none of which had as many as a thousand residents. Many panhandle residents had, in fact, migrated to the area from Alabama and had relatives there; it was also easier to trade with and travel to southern Alabama than to reach East Florida by slow, arduous journey across the thick cypress swamps and dense pine forests of the panhandle. It was natural for West Floridians to feel that they had more in common with their nearby neighbors in Alabama than with the residents of the peninsula, hundreds of miles away.[8]
In 1821, Pensacola was the only city (in 19th-century terms) in West Florida, with a population estimated to be about 3,000. In the 1850 census, the enumerated population of Pensacola was 2,164 (including 741 slaves and 350 "free Negroes").[9]
Alabama annexation proposals
During the course of the century, proposals for ceding the Florida counties west of the Apalachicola River to Alabama were often raised:
In 1826, the Pensacola Gazette published a number of letters advocating annexation to Alabama, though the editor remarked that some Pensacolians opposed the idea.[9]
In 1840, a public meeting in Pensacola produced a demand that West Florida be united with Alabama. In the same year, the territorial Legislature notified Congress that it opposed allowing Alabama to annex West Florida, but in 1844, the year before statehood, the Legislature reversed its stance and asked that West Florida be separated.[9]
In 1856, advocates of annexation were able to get a bill passed by the Legislature authorizing a referendum on the issue, but Governor James E. Broome vetoed the measure. The Pensacola Gazette reported that "annexation is desired by a large majority of the people" of the area.[9]
In 1858, the Alabama Legislature unsuccessfully tried to open negotiations with Florida on the subject.[citation needed]
The annexation issue was eclipsed by the Civil War and the war's effects on the region, but in 1868, with Pensacola now connected by the panhandle's sole railroad line to the Alabama cities of Mobile and Montgomery, the issue came to a head again and was finally put to a vote of the people. In that year, the Alabama Legislature approved a joint resolution authorizing their Governor to negotiate with the Governor of Florida about the annexation of West Florida. An offer of one million dollars in Alabama state bonds, paying 8 percent interest for thirty years, was included. Both states appointed commissioners to make detailed recommendations on the matter.[10]
On November 2, 1869, a referendum was held in the West Florida counties (except Jackson, which was in the throes of bloody racial violence[11]), with a result of 1162 to 661 in favor of annexation.[8] However, political objection developed in Alabama to the high price, and the Legislature took no action on the results of the referendum.[12]
In 1873, a similar proposal was made in the Alabama Legislature, which the state senate approved, though it did not pass a separate proposal to finance the measure by selling all of Alabama's territory west of the Tombigbee River, including the city of Mobile, to Mississippi.[13] However, nothing came of this action.
In 1901, Alabama made yet another offer when the Legislature appointed a commission to negotiate with Florida about annexation, but this attempt, too, was unsuccessful.[citation needed]
The building of the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad, completed in 1883, finally linked Pensacola and the panhandle solidly with the rest of the state and ended the region's isolation, although from time to time during the twentieth century there were still occasional calls for annexation that generated some public discussion but no legislative action.
The panhandle suffered direct hits from Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and Hurricane Dennis in 2005. Ivan was the most disastrous, making landfall near Gulf Shores, Alabama, with 120 mile-per-hour (193 km/h) winds and a 14-foot (4.3 m) storm surge that devastated Perdido Key and Santa Rosa Island, wrecked the Interstate 10 bridge across Escambia Bay, and destroyed thousands of homes in the region, some as far away as 20 miles (32 km) inland.
On June 23, 2010, oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill landed on Pensacola Beach and Navarre Beach, damaging the fishing and tourism industries, and prompting a massive clean-up effort.[14]
On October 10, 2018, the panhandle suffered a direct hit from Hurricane Michael, with winds as high as 160 mph. Michael was one of only four category 5 hurricanes to ever hit the US mainland.[15] Thousands of homes were destroyed, and apartment rents in Panama City increased, with a $500 apartment renting for $1000 in 2019. Recovery from Hurricane Michael was not complete in June 2019, and disaster relief for the panhandle remained stalled in Congress.[16]
In addition to military bases, state and local governments, hospitals, schools, and colleges, major private employers in the second half of the twentieth century included Monsanto and Westinghouse plants at Pensacola, the St. Joe Paper Company in Port St. Joe, and Gulf Power, a major electric utility company.
Unlike central and southern Florida, the panhandle has never been a producer of citrus crops because the area is subject to regular frosts and freezes during winter, which destroy citrus fruits.
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (February 2024)
The politics of the Florida panhandle vary considerably depending on location. The western panhandle, particularly the Emerald Coast, was one of the earliest areas to shake off its Yellow Dog Democrat roots,[disputed – discuss] and since the 1990s has become the most Republican part of Florida. Fort Walton Beach, Destin and Panama City regularly give Republicans close to or over 70% margins in state and national elections. However, Tallahassee and Gadsden County tend to be strongly Democratic. In the 2008 presidential election, John McCain received 421,287 votes (60.1%) in the panhandle, while Barack Obama received 279,206 votes (39.9%).
The panhandle is renowned for the white sand beaches and blue-green waters of its barrier islands fronting the Gulf of Mexico. According to the National Park Service:[17]
The stunning sugar-white beaches of Gulf Islands National Seashore are composed of fine quartz eroded from granite in the Appalachian Mountains. The sand is carried seaward by rivers and creeks and deposited by currents along the shore.
The beach towns in the panhandle, many of which play host to college students during spring break, are sometimes derisively called the Redneck Riviera.[18] The term was used as the title of a song by country music artist Tom T. Hall on his 1996 album Songs from Sopchoppy. The album takes its name from a town in rural Wakulla County, near Tallahassee.
Tourists have been drawn to the panhandle since the building of the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad in the 1880s. Pensacola Beach has been a major tourist attraction since the building of bridges between the mainland and Santa Rosa Island in 1931.[citation needed] After World War II, an increase in both tourism and population of the area led to a proliferation of motels, restaurants, bars, tourist attractions, and amusement parks along the coast, concentrated in Pensacola Beach, Fort Walton Beach, and Panama City Beach. Examples include the Gulfarium marine park and aquarium in Fort Walton Beach,[19] and the former Miracle Strip Amusement Park (1963–2004) in Panama City Beach.
In 1971, the federal government acquired many acres of the coastal islands in Escambia, Santa Rosa, and Okaloosa counties, preserving them from commercial development by establishing the Gulf Islands National Seashore, which also covers some islands off the Mississippi coast. Other beach areas protected by the state of Florida include
Both state and federal parks offer facilities for camping, picnicking, and other recreational pursuits. In addition, some parts of the coastline are federal property belonging to Pensacola Naval Air Station, Eglin Air Force Base, and Tyndall Air Force Base, and so are likewise protected from commercial development.
In addition, seven state aquatic preserves, covering thousands of acres of submerged lands in coastal areas, are located in the panhandle.[20] A number of other state parks, preserves, and forests are located inland.
The 1983-84 television show Emerald Point N.A.S. was set in a naval air station somewhere in the American South, similar to Pensacola NAS. The 1997-2000 action/adventure series Pensacola: Wings of Gold was explicitly set there.
^"Deep South". The Free Dictionary. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
^A Newsweek article in 1972, referring to then United States Senator Lawton Chiles, said "In 1958, he was elected to the state legislature from the ultraconservative piney-woods panhandle of Florida."
^United States Patent and Trademark Office Searching on this site reveals that the name was "first used in commerce" in 1992; the ABCofC registered the trademark in 2009.
^Reiley, Laura. "The Forgotten Coast", Moon Florida Gulf Coast, Avalon Travel Publishing, 2008, pp. 262–289. ISBN1-59880-082-5.
DeBolt, Dean. "The Florida Panhandle", pp. 404–445 in The Book Lover's Guide to Florida, ed. Kevin M. McCarthy. Sarasota, Florida: Pineapple Press, 1992. ISBN978-1-56164-012-6 (Contains an extensive bibliography of fiction and nonfiction works about people and places in the Panhandle.)
Hollis, Tim. Florida’s Miracle Strip: From Redneck Riviera to Emerald Coast. University Press of Mississippi, 2004. ISBN978-1-57806-627-8
Jahoda, Gloria. The Other Florida. Scribner, 1967.
King, Heidi Tyline. The Pelican Guide to the Florida Panhandle. Pelican Publishing, 1999. ISBN1-56554-308-4
O'Donovan, Michael, and Robin Rowan. Florida's Northwest: First Places, Wild Places, Favorite Places. Terra Nova Publishing, 2005. ISBN0-9651034-3-9
Ziewitz, Kathryn, and June Wiaz. Green Empire: The St. Joe Company and the Remaking of Florida's Panhandle. University Press of Florida, 2006. ISBN0-8130-2951-1
