For a list of other U.S. states with similar geographic extensions, see Panhandle

The Florida Panhandle, an informal, unofficial term for the northwestern part of Florida, is a strip of land roughly 200 miles long and 50 to 100 miles wide (320 km by 80 to 160 km), lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia also on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Its eastern boundary is arbitrarily defined.

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, while the rest of the state is in the Eastern Time Zone. Pensacola, home of the University of West Florida, is the largest metropolitan area west of the Apalachicola (453,451 in 2007).

References to the panhandle may also include some or all of eight counties immediately east of the Apalachicola known as the Big Bend region, along the curve of Apalachee Bay. Tallahassee, the state capital, is the largest metropolitan area in this subregion (357,259 in 2008).^[1][2]

The terms West Florida and Northwest Florida are generally synonymous with the Panhandle. Emerald Coast, a marketing term, refers specifically to the beaches and coastal resorts from Pensacola to Port St. Joe but is sometimes used to refer, by extension, to the Panhandle as a whole, especially west of the Apalachicola.

Physical features

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 Alabama, Georgia, and Florida meet. From there, it flows due south to the town of Apalachicola.

U.S. Interstate 10 is the only interstate highway in the panhandle connecting the extreme west with North Florida and Jacksonville. Other older east-west routes include U.S. Highway 90 and U.S. Highway 98. Important north-south routes west of the Apalachicola River include U.S. Highway 29, U.S. Highway 331, and U.S. Highway 231, all linking to Alabama and Interstate 65.

Florida State Road 20 stretches from Niceville to Tallahassee.

The major railroad line through the Panhandle, running from Pensacola to Jacksonville, is owned by CSX railroad. (See Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad.) Regional short-line railroads serving the Panhandle are the Alabama and Gulf Coast Railway, the Bay Line Railroad and the AN Railway.

Like the First Coast and North Central Florida, this region is more similar in culture and climate to the Deep South than to the lower Peninsula of area of South Florida.

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.^[3]

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").^[4]

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 1811, while Florida was still a Spanish possession, American residents sent a petition to Congress asking to be incorporated into the Mississippi Territory, which at that time included present-day Alabama.^[5] (See West Florida article.)
• In 1819, the constitutional convention of Alabama asked Congress to include West Florida in their new state.^[5]
• In 1822, only a year after the U.S. acquired the entire Florida territory from Spain, residents of West Florida sent a petition to the U.S. House of Representatives asking that their section be annexed to Alabama, and Alabama Senator John Williams Walker also promoted the idea.^[4]
• In 1826, the Pensacola Gazette published a number of letters advocating annexation to Alabama, though the editor remarked that some Pensacolians opposed the idea.^[4]
• 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.^[4]
• In 1856, advocates of annexation were able to get a bill passed by the Legislature authorizing a referendum on the issue but the 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.^[4]
• In 1858, the Alabama Legislature unsuccessfully tried to open negotiations with Florida on the subject.^[5]
• 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.^[6]
• On November 2, 1869, a referendum was held in the West Florida counties (except Jackson, which was in the throes of bloody racial violence^[7]), with a result of 1162 to 661 in favor of annexation.^[3] However, political objection developed in Alabama (still under carpetbag rule) to the high price, and the Legislature took no action on the results of the referendum.^[5][8]
• 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.^[9] 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.^[5]

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.

20th century

The area was a prime target of the 1993 Storm of the Century.

Counties

The following counties west of the Apalachicola River are always included in references to the Panhandle:

Some or all of the following counties east of the Apalachicola, in the Big Bend subregion, are sometimes considered part of the Panhandle:

Cities

Cities in the Panhandle include Tallahassee, Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach, and Panama City.

Beaches

The beach towns, many of which play host to college students during spring break, in the Panhandle are sometimes known by the informal moniker – the Redneck Riviera.^{[citation needed]} The quartz sand on the beaches of the Panhandle is so white that some traders reportedly sold it as sugar in World War II.^[10]

Military bases

Major military bases include the Naval Air Station at Pensacola (the home of Naval Aviation in the United States), Eglin Air Force Base and Hurlburt Field, near Ft. Walton Beach, and Tyndall Air Force Base, near Panama City.

Minor divisions

The Panhandle can be divided into three major sections - East, Central and Western.

The Western Florida Panhandle is dominated by coastal development and military bases, to include Eglin Air Force Base, Hurlburt Field, Whiting Field, Naval Air Station Pensacola, and Tyndall Air Force Base. Significant towns include Pensacola, Destin, Fort Walton Beach, and Panama City.

The Central Florida Panhandle, stretching through Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, and Bay Counties, has been marked by upscale developments in recent decades. These include Seaside, Sandestin, and countless others. In fact, development in the coastal area has become so commonplace that very little beachfront property remains untouched, unless it is under the stewardship of the Federal or State Government.

The Eastern Florida Panhandle is mostly defined by Tallahassee and its surrounding environs, including Wakulla County.

Major communities

References

External links

• Outdoor Gulf Coast - Online recreation for Northwest Florida
• Panama City Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau - Official online travel planning resource for Panama City Beach