Orange Park is a town in Clay County, Florida, United States. It is a suburb of Jacksonville, in neighboring Duval County. The population was 8,412 at the 2010 census. The name "Orange Park" is additionally applied to a wider area of northern Clay County outside the town limits, covering such communities as Fleming Island, Lakeside, Bellair-Meadowbrook Terrace and Oakleaf Plantation.
Palatka is a city in northeastern Florida and it is the county seat of Putnam County, Florida, United States. The population was 10,558 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Putnam County. Palatka is the principal city of the Palatka Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is home to 72,893 residents. The city is also home to St. Johns River State College, St. Johns River Water Management District Headquarters, and Ravine Gardens State Park. The area is well known for its local festivals, most notably the Florida Azalea Festival and the Blue Crab Festival.
The East Coast Greenway is a 3,000-mile (4,800 km) pedestrian and bicycle route between Maine and Florida along the East Coast of the United States. The nonprofit East Coast Greenway Alliance was created in 1991 with the goal to use the entire route with off-road, shared-use paths; as of 2021, over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) of the route (35%) meets this criteria. In 2020, the Greenway received over 50 million visits.
The St. Johns River is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and its most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At 310 miles (500 km) long, it flows north and winds through or borders twelve counties. The drop in elevation from headwaters to mouth is less than 30 feet (9 m); like most Florida waterways, the St. Johns has a very slow flow speed of 0.3 mph (0.13 m/s), and is often described as "lazy".
Lake George or Lake Welaka is a broad and shallow brackish lake on the St. Johns River in the U.S. state of Florida.
The Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve is a U.S. National Preserve in Jacksonville, Florida. It comprises 46,000 acres (19,000 ha) of wetlands, waterways, and other habitats in northeastern Duval County. Managed by the National Park Service in cooperation with the City of Jacksonville and Florida State Parks, it includes natural and historic areas such as the Fort Caroline National Memorial and the Kingsley Plantation.
For the island in James Bay, Canada, see Chisasibi.
The history of Leon County, Florida, much like the History of Tallahassee, dates back to the settlement of the Americas. Beginning in the 16th century, the region was colonized by Europeans, becoming part of Spanish Florida. In 1819, the Adams–Onís Treaty ceded Spanish Florida, including modern-day Leon County, to the United States. Named for Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, Leon County became an official U.S. county in 1824; the American takeover led to the county's rapid expansion as growing numbers of cotton plantations began to spring up nearby, increasing Leon County's population significantly.
There are more than 500 neighborhoods within the area of Jacksonville, Florida, the largest city in the contiguous United States by area. These include Downtown Jacksonville and surrounding neighborhoods. Additionally, greater Jacksonville is traditionally divided into several major sections with amorphous boundaries: Northside, Westside, Southside, and Arlington, as well as the Jacksonville Beaches.
Fleming Island is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Clay County, Florida, United States. It is located 21 miles (34 km) southwest of downtown Jacksonville, on the western side of the St. Johns River, off US 17. As of the 2010 census the Fleming Island CDP had a population of 27,126. Fleming Island's ZIP code became 32003 in 2004, giving it a different code from Orange Park, the incorporated town to the north.
Kingsley Plantation is the site of a former estate in Jacksonville, Florida, that was named for its developer and most famous owner, Zephaniah Kingsley, who spent 25 years there. It is located at the northern tip of Fort George Island at Fort George Inlet, and is part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve managed by the U.S. National Park Service. Kingsley's house is the oldest plantation house still standing in Florida, and the solidly-built village of slave cabins is one of the best preserved in the United States. It is also "the oldest surviving antebellum Spanish Colonial plantation in the United States."
Doctors Lake is a body of water located off the St. Johns River in Clay County, Florida. Despite its name, it is not a true lake, as it is actually an inlet, openly connected to the St. Johns. Because of the estuarine nature of the St. Johns, Doctors Lake is itself somewhat brackish.
Zephaniah Kingsley Jr. was a Quaker, born in England, who moved as a child with his family to South Carolina, and became a planter, slave trader, and merchant. He built four plantations in the Spanish colony of Florida near what is now Jacksonville, Florida. He served on the Florida Territorial Council after Florida was acquired by the United States in 1821. Kingsley Plantation, which he owned and where he lived for 25 years, has been preserved as part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, run by the United States National Park Service. Finding his large and complicated family progressively more insecure in Florida, he moved them to a vanished plantation, Mayorasgo de Koka, in what was then Haiti but soon became part of the Dominican Republic.
The following is an alphabetical list of articles related to the U.S. state of Florida.
Crescent Lake is a 15,960-acre (64.6 km2) freshwater lake located in Putnam and Flagler counties in North Central Florida. The lake is approximately 13 miles (21 km) in length and 2 miles (3.2 km) wide. At the north end it connects to St. Johns River by way of Dunn's Creek.
North Florida is a region of the U.S. state of Florida comprising the northernmost part of the state. Along with South Florida and Central Florida, it is one of Florida's three most common "directional" regions. It includes Jacksonville and nearby localities in Northeast Florida, an interior region known as North Central Florida, and the Florida Panhandle.
The Fort Gates Ferry is an auto ferry that crosses the St. Johns River in Florida, downstream of Lake George and just upstream of Little Lake George, at Fruitland Cove. The oldest operating ferry in Florida, it acts as part of the Florida Black Bear Scenic Byway.
The Drayton Island Ferry is an auto ferry that crosses the St. Johns River in Putnam County, Florida, connecting Georgetown on the eastern bank with Drayton Island, located in the middle of the river at the north end of Lake George. It provides the only public access to the island.
The Northside is a large region of Jacksonville, Florida, and is generally understood as a counterpart to the city's other large regions, the Urban Core, Arlington, Southside, Westside, and the Beaches. The expansive area consists of historic communities, cultural landmarks, protected ecosystems and vital transportation and logistics facilities, all fundamental to the history and development of Jacksonville.
African Americans have made considerable contributions to the history and development of Jacksonville, Florida. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population make up of African American in Jacksonville Florida is 31%.
