Useful and useless information about Jacksonville and the Sunshine State

• Ponce de Leon,the Spanish explorer, landed on the beach between Jacksonville and St. Augustine on April 3, 1513.
• The story that Ponce de Leon named the area Florida because of the abundance of flowers (flora in Spanish) is probably untrue. The coastal beach he landed on has few if any flowers in April.
• The land was purchased by the US in 1821 and became the 27th state in 1845.
• Florida is the 22nd state in land area, covering 65,756 square miles: 53,937 square miles are land and 11,819 square miles are fresh water.
• The state has about 1,197 miles of coastline; 633 miles are beach.
• No point in the state is more than 70 miles from salt water.
• The highest point is 345 feet near Lakewood in Walton County; the lowest point is sea level.
• Florida has over 200 springs with a combined daily output of 7 billion gallons of water.
• Lake Okeechobee is the 2nd largest natural body of fresh water in the US (Lake Michigan is first).
• Florida is the 4th largest state in population: 12,938,071(1990 census), 15,111,244 (1999 estimated).
• Limestone is Florida's most abundant mineral.
• Four poisonous snakes are indigenous to Florida: Rattlesnake, Cottonmouth moccasin, copperhead and coral snake.

Florida Symbols

• Florida state song: "Swanee River"
  ("Old Folks at Home") by Stephen Foster.
• Bird: Mockingbird
• Animal: Florida panther
• State mammal: Manatee
• Saltwater mammal: Porpoise
• Saltwater fish: Atlantic sailfish
• Freshwater fish: Largemouth Bass
• Reptile: Alligator
• Insect: Zebra longwing butterfly
• Flower: Orange blossom
• Tree: Sabal palm
• Gem stone: Moonstone
• Stone: Agatized coral
• Seashell: Horse conch
• Official Beverage: Orange juice

Jacksonville Facts

Jax History

• Jacksonville was laid out and surveyed in June of 1822 after an early settler, Isaiah David Hart, had the idea of surveying a town. He has the credit of being Jacksonvillle's founder.
• The town was named for Andrew Jackson, the territorial governor, who brought order out of the chaos that resulted from the US purchase of Florida in 1821.
• Duval County was created August 12, 1822.

Jax Population

• The Greater Jacksonville Area, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns Counties, has over one million residents.
• Duval County's estimated population for 1999 was 762,846 based on the 1990 US Census.
• The average household has 2.54 residents (1999).
• African-Americans make up the largest minority group, 27.1% of the total population.
• Jacksonville has 22,671 (July, 2000) active duty military personnel.
• The median age of Jacksonville residents is 33. The largest age group, 63,658 members, is ages 35-39.

Geography

• Since consolidation in 1968, the city of Jacksonville and Duval County are one, making Jacksonville the largest city in land area (841 square miles) in the US. The communities of Jacksonville Beach, Neptune Beach, Atlantic Beach and Baldwin have their own city governments within Duval County.
• The St. Johns River, one of the few rivers in the world which flows north, meanders 310 miles, cuts downtown Jacksonville in half and empties into the Atlantic near Mayport.
• The northeast coastline is 25 miles from downtown Jacksonville. Everyone in Northeast Florida calls the 55 mile stretch of beach from south Fernandina to north St. Augustine the Beaches. It is a wonderful and varied beach with small communities and desolate areas.

Recreation

• The city has 282 public parks.
• Twenty-one Public Boat Ramps
• Thirty-three Public Swimming Pools
• Jacksonville has 43 golf courses, public and private, one zoo and 22 museums and 1,050 restaurants.

• Thirty Year Averages
  Month with Most Rain--September, 7.20 inches
  Month with Least Rain--November, 1.98 inches
  Yearly Average--4.38 inches
  Month with Highest Temperature--July, 89.1
  Month with Lowest Temperature--January, 45.1
  
• Most Snowfall, 1.9 inches, February 13, 1899
  
• One Direct Hit by a Hurricane, Hurricane Dora, September 1964; Several near misses.
  

Sources of Information: Florida Department of State and Jacksonville Community Council Inc, History of Jacksonville, FL and Vicinityby T. Frederick Davis, Reprinted, 1990