Portal:Florida

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The Florida Portal

Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to the south by the Straits of Florida and Cuba; it is the only state that borders both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Spanning 65,758 square miles (170,310 km²), Florida ranks 22nd in area among the 50 states, and with a population of over 21 million, is the third-most populous. The state capital is Tallahassee and the most populous city is Jacksonville. The Miami metropolitan area, with a population of almost 6.2 million, is the most populous urban area in Florida and the ninth-most populous in the United States; other urban conurbations with over one million people are Tampa Bay, Orlando, and Jacksonville.

Various Native American groups have inhabited Florida for at least 14,000 years. In 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León became the first known European to make landfall, calling the region La Florida ([la floˈɾiða] for its lush greenery and the Easter season (Pascua Florida in Spanish). Florida subsequently became the first area in the continental U.S. to be permanently settled by Europeans, with the Spanish colony of St. Augustine, founded in 1565, being the oldest continuously inhabited city. Florida was repeatedly contested by Spain and Great Britain, before being ceded to the U.S. in 1819; it was admitted as the 27th state on March 3, 1845. Florida was the principal location of the Seminole Wars (1816–1858), the longest and most extensive of the Indian Wars in U.S. history. The state seceded from the Union on January 10, 1861, becoming one of the seven original Confederate States. After the Civil War, Florida was restored to the Union on June 25, 1868.

Since the mid-20th century, Florida has experienced rapid demographic and economic growth. Its economy, with a gross state product (GSP) of $1.0 trillion, is the fourth-largest of any U.S. state and the 16th-largest in the world; the main sectors are tourism, hospitality, agriculture, real estate, and transportation. Florida is world-renowned for its beach resorts, amusement parks, warm and sunny climate, and nautical recreation; attractions such as Walt Disney World, the Kennedy Space Center, and Miami Beach draw tens of millions of visitors annually. Florida is a popular destination for retirees, seasonal vacationers, and both domestic and international migrants; it hosts nine out of the ten fastest-growing communities in the U.S. The state's close proximity to the ocean has shaped its culture, identity, and daily life; its colonial history and successive waves of migration are reflected in African, European, Indigenous, Latino, and Asian influences. Florida has attracted or inspired writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, and continues to attract celebrities and athletes, particularly in golf, tennis, auto racing, and water sports. Florida is also heavily noted for being a battleground state in American presidential elections, notably those in 2000, 2016, and 2020. (Full article...)

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A portion of the C-38 canal, finished in 1971, now backfilled to restore the Kissimmee River floodplain to a more natural state

An ongoing effort to remedy damage inflicted during the 20th century on the Everglades, a region of tropical wetlands in southern Florida, is the most expensive and comprehensive environmental repair attempt in history. The degradation of the Everglades became an issue in the United States in the early 1970s after a proposal to construct an airport in the Big Cypress Swamp. Studies indicated the airport would have destroyed the ecosystem in South Florida and Everglades National Park. After decades of destructive practices, both state and federal agencies are looking for ways to balance the needs of the natural environment in South Florida with urban and agricultural centers that have recently and rapidly grown in and near the Everglades.

In response to floods caused by hurricanes in 1947, the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control Project (C&SF) was established to construct flood control devices in the Everglades. The C&SF built 1,400 miles (2,300 km) of canals and levees between the 1950s and 1971 throughout South Florida. Their last venture was the C-38 canal, which straightened the Kissimmee River and caused catastrophic damage to animal habitats, adversely affecting water quality in the region. The canal became the first C&SF project to revert when the 22-mile (35 km) canal began to be backfilled, or refilled with the material excavated from it, in the 1980s. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

... that U.S. general George Mathews attempted a failed annexation of Spanish Florida just months before the outbreak of the War of 1812?
... that at the time of her retirement in 2008, Florida State Seminoles coach JoAnne Graf held the record for most wins in the history of NCAA Division I softball?
... that the Florida beach festival Surfing Santas, held regularly on Christmas Eve, was inspired by a Honda commercial?
... that Florida's Amendment 4 reenfranchised an estimated 1.4 million ex-felons?
... that 537 Votes, documenting the controversial 2000 United States presidential election in Florida, was released in the run-up to the 2020 United States presidential election?
... that Robin Denselow of The Guardian called Orlando Julius "one of the heroes of Nigerian music"?

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Believe me, this country [Florida] has been greatly overrated. One acre of our fine Tennessee land is worth a thousand here

— Rachel Jackson

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The following are images from various Florida-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Soldiers and crowds in Downtown Miami 20 minutes after Japan's surrender ending World War II (1945). (from History of Florida)
Image 2The Florida scrub jay is found only in Florida (from Geography of Florida)
Image 3Destruction in Lakes by the Bay near Miami following Hurricane Andrew (from History of Florida)
Image 4Sunniland stratigraphic column (from Environment of Florida)
Image 5The Battle of Olustee was the only major Civil War battle fought in Florida. (from History of Florida)
Image 6Snow is very uncommon in Florida, but has occurred in every major Florida city at least once; snow does fall very occasionally in North Florida (from Geography of Florida)
Image 7Typical summer afternoon shower from the Everglades traveling eastward over Downtown Miami (from Geography of Florida)
Image 8Andrew Jackson served as the first military Governor of Florida. (from History of Florida)
Image 9Kennedy Space Center. (from History of Florida)
Image 10Juan Ponce de León (Santervás de Campos, Valladolid, Spain). He was one of the first Europeans to set foot in the current U.S.; he led the first European expedition to Florida, which he named. (from History of Florida)
Image 11Alligator in the Florida Everglades (from Geography of Florida)
Image 12Florida map of Köppen climate classification. (from Geography of Florida)
Image 13Timucua Indians at a column erected by the French in 1562 (from History of Florida)
Image 14Seminole leader Osceola. (from History of Florida)
Image 15The beach at Bahia Honda in the Florida Keys (from Geography of Florida)
Image 16Royal Poinciana tree in full bloom in the Florida Keys, an indication of South Florida's tropical climate (from Geography of Florida)
Image 17Fall foliage in North Florida (from Geography of Florida)
Image 18Crandon Park in Key Biscayne (from Geography of Florida)
Image 19Bernard Picart Copper Plate Engraving of Florida Indians, Circa 1721 (from History of Florida)
Image 20Hurricane Andrew bearing down on Florida on August 23, 1992 (from Geography of Florida)
Image 21Topographic map of Florida (from Geography of Florida)
Image 22Platydemus manokwari in Florida (from Environment of Florida)
Image 23The expanded West Florida territory in 1767. (from History of Florida)
Image 24Five flags of Florida, not including the current State Flag or France. (from History of Florida)
Image 25A map of Florida showing county names and boundaries (from Geography of Florida)
Image 26A 1591 map of Florida by Jacques le Moyne de Morgues. (from History of Florida)
Image 27A shell midden at Enterprise in 1875. (from History of Florida)
Image 28Tourists hunting in 1893 (from History of Florida)
Image 29Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort (from History of Florida)
Image 30A depiction of what might be Florida from the 1502 Cantino map (from History of Florida)
Image 31South Florida's climate is ideal for growing sugarcane. (from Geography of Florida)
Image 32A 1527 map by Vesconte Maggiolo showing the east coast of North America with "Tera Florida" at the top and "Lavoradore" at the bottom. (from History of Florida)
Image 33The brick Capitol as built in 1845. (from History of Florida)
Image 34Key deer in the lower Florida Keys (from Geography of Florida)
Image 35"Butterfly ballot" (from History of Florida)
Image 36Sunniland Oil Fields (from Environment of Florida)

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Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in 1953

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (August 8, 1896 – December 14, 1953) was an American writer who lived in rural Florida and wrote novels with rural themes and settings. Her best known work, The Yearling, about a boy who adopts an orphaned fawn, won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1939 and was later made into a movie of the same name. The book was written before the concept of young adult fiction, but is now commonly included in teen-reading lists. (Full article...)

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Image 1A Great blue heron at Alafia River State Park
Image 2The main street in Alachua downtown historic district
Image 3Fountains at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park in Tampa, Florida
Image 4Downtown Miami, viewed from Virginia Key
Image 5Fort Brooke was a historical military post situated on the east bank (at the mouth) of the Hillsborough River in present-day Tampa, Florida
Image 6Fort Jefferson at the Dry Tortugas
Image 7A Cuban sandwich is a variation of a ham and cheese sandwich that originated among the Cuban workers in the cigar factories in Key West, Florida^[1]^[2]
Image 8Farles Prairie in Ocala National Forest
Image 9Florida from space, taken by Shuttle Mission STS-95 on October 31, 1998

Current events

September 30, 2022 – 2022 Atlantic hurricane season: Hurricane Ian makes its fourth landfall in South Carolina, after devastating portions of Florida and Cuba. (National Hurricane Center)
September 29, 2022 – 2022 Atlantic hurricane season: A section of the Sanibel Causeway in Florida, United States, collapses following damage from Ian, blocking access to the islands of Sanibel and Captiva. (Tampa Bay Times) (WTVJ-TV); Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announces that the state has launched efforts to rescue people stranded from their homes by flooding from Ian. Additionally, President Joe Biden declares Ian a major disaster. (Politico)
September 28, 2022 – 2022 Atlantic hurricane season: Hurricane Ian makes landfall near Englewood, Florida, United States, as a high-end Category 4 hurricane. (CNBC) (WXII-TV)

WikiProjects

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WikiProject Florida

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Credit: Ebyabe

DeFuniak Springs is a city in Walton County, Florida, United States. The population was 5,089 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 5,141.

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This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Florida}}) or categorized correctly. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.

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Cauley Square (2022-09-12) • Dania Beach Hurricane (2022-09-11) • Cheetah Hunt (2022-09-05) • Sean Barber (2022-09-01) • Lee Wachtstetter (2022-08-31) • Tigris (roller coaster) (2022-08-28) • Ken Russell (politician) (2022-08-25) • Chaz Stevens (2022-08-22) • Hank Goldberg (2022-08-16) • Dwight Smith (baseball) (2022-08-07) • Mario Salcedo (2022-08-06) • WPST-TV (2022-07-24) • Lance McCullers (2022-07-23) • WAQI (2022-07-18) • Iron Gwazi (2022-07-11) • The Mutiny Hotel (2022-06-09) • NetPark Tampa Bay (2022-06-08) • Dave Thomas (politician) (2022-06-04) • Royal Theater (St. Petersburg, Florida) (2022-05-05) • Disney and Florida's Parental Rights in Education Act (2022-04-21) • Mary Hayes Davis (2022-04-17) • Jovani Furlan (2022-03-24) • Peter Walker (dancer) (2022-03-21) • Jack Sweeney (2022-03-15) • WGBS-TV (2022-03-03) • WITV (Florida) (2022-03-02) • Milam Residence (2022-02-25) • Lake Worth Beach, Florida (2022-02-10) • Zigzag House (2022-02-07) • Comedian (artwork) (2022-01-28) • WTNT-FM (2022-01-27) • Surfing Santas (2021-12-24) • Moms for Liberty (2021-12-19) • Dinosaur Wildlife (2021-09-03) • Flora Mae Hunter (2021-08-18) • Potential Tropical Cyclone Ten (2021-08-15) • Florida death metal (2021-08-07) • George Floyd (American football) (2021-08-03) • Josh Phillips (murderer) (2021-07-10) • WOIR (2021-07-09) • Nikki Fried (2021-07-09) • Three Notch Road (2021-06-24) • WVOI (2021-06-16) • Matt Moore (baseball) (2021-06-14) • EliteXC: Heat (2021-05-25) • Annamary Dickey (2021-05-23) • Mary Ellen Moylan (2021-05-14) • Jeepers Creepers (2001 film) (2021-05-08) • Benjamin Kapelushnik (2021-04-16) • Zach Eflin (2021-04-04)

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Things you can do

Tag all talk pages of Florida articles and categories with {{WPFlorida|class=|importance=}}. (The rater user script can be used to help tag articles.)
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Add county templates ({{Hamilton County, Florida}}, {{Jackson County, Florida}}, etc.) to appropriate cities.
Add appropriate short descriptions to Florida-related articles.

Sources

^ "Cuba's most famous food isn't even from Cuba — or Miami". Matador Network.
^ "Viva La Cuban Sandwich!". Farmers’ Almanac. March 20, 2015.

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[1] "Cuba's most famous food isn't even from Cuba — or Miami". Matador Network.

[2] "Viva La Cuban Sandwich!". Farmers’ Almanac. March 20, 2015.

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[2]

v t e State of Florida
Tallahassee (capital)
Topics	Index Climate (Climate change) Congressional Delegations Districts Education Environment (Environmental issues) Fauna Flora Geology Government Hurricanes Law Mass media Newspapers Radio TV Symbols Flag Motto Seal Tourist attractions Transportation	Seal of Florida
History	Timeline Spanish Florida Missions British Rule East Florida West Florida Seminole Florida Territory Seminole Wars Slavery Plantations of Leon County Civil War Florida East Coast Railway Florida land boom of the 1920s Cape Canaveral Kennedy Space Center Disney World
Geography	Beaches Caves Everglades (Drainage and development) Keys Lakes Lake Okeechobee Reef Rivers Sinkholes Springs State forests State parks Swamps
Major hurricanes	Florida Keys (1919) Tampa Bay (1921) Miami (1926) Okeechobee (1928) Florida Keys (1929) Treasure Coast (1933) Labor Day (1935) Dry Tortugas (1944) Homestead (1945) Fort Lauderdale (1947) South Florida (1948) 1949 Florida hurricane Easy (1950) King (1950) Donna (1960) Betsy (1965) Eloise (1975) Elena (1985) Andrew (1992) Opal (1995) Charley (2004) Frances (2004) Ivan (2004) Jeanne (2004) Dennis (2005) Wilma (2005) Matthew (2016) Irma (2017) Michael (2018) Dorian (2019) Sally (2020)
Society	African-American Crime Cuban-American culture Miami Tampa Culture Demographics Economy Education Floridians Haitian-American culture Delray Beach Miami Indigenous peoples Everglades Politics Sports
Regions	Big Bend Central Florida Emerald Coast Everglades First Coast Forgotten Coast Gold Coast Halifax area Heartland Keys Nature Coast North Central Florida North Florida Panhandle South Florida Southwest Florida Space Coast Suncoast Tampa Bay Area Treasure Coast
Metro areas	Cape Coral–Fort Myers Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach Gainesville Homosassa Springs Jacksonville Lakeland–Winter Haven Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton Ocala Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville Panama City Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent Port St. Lucie Punta Gorda Sebastian-Vero Beach Sebring Tallahassee Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater The Villages
Largest cities	Jacksonville Miami Tampa Orlando St. Petersburg Hialeah Tallahassee Port St. Lucie Fort Lauderdale West Palm Beach Cape Coral Pembroke Pines Hollywood Miramar
Counties	Alachua Baker Bay Bradford Brevard Broward Calhoun Charlotte Citrus Clay Collier Columbia DeSoto Dixie Duval Escambia Flagler Franklin Gadsden Gilchrist Glades Gulf Hamilton Hardee Hendry Hernando Highlands Hillsborough Holmes Indian River Jackson Jefferson Lafayette Lake Lee Leon Levy Liberty Madison Manatee Marion Martin Miami‑Dade Monroe Mosquito (former county) Nassau Okaloosa Okeechobee Orange Osceola Palm Beach Pasco Pinellas Polk Putnam Santa Rosa Sarasota Seminole St. Johns St. Lucie Sumter Suwannee Taylor Union Volusia Wakulla Walton Washington