Things to do / Travel Guide
Northeast Florida and the Panhandle are often considered the southernmost members of the Old South. While the region has a very long history of European settlement, dating back in some places to the 16th century, truly permanent and flourishing settlement really only got underway in the 19th century. The settlers were, for the most part, immigrants from the more inhabited South, Georgia in particular.
Notably, another popular name for the Emerald Coast is the Redneck Riviera. The area's been a well-known resort area for the inhabitants of these parts for ages now, and most of them are proud of the name they have bequeathed upon it.
The majority of the population is Caucasian. Though very well-represented as far as place names in the region, Native Americans make up just about 1% of its population. This meager representation is a result of the Second Seminole War, which ended with the emigration of thousands of Native Americans to Mississippi.
When Florida became a state in 1845, nearly half of the inhabitants were African American slaves. Nowadays the central areas of northern Florida, that is to say the eastern part of the Panhandle, have much larger of a proportion of African Americans than other places: In some counties up to 40% of the population is African American. In the rest of the region, African Americans make up between 5-10% of the overall population.
Latin Americans have a presence in this region as well, making up about 15% of Jacksonville's residents, for example. Notably, these Spanish-speaking residents are not descendants of the region's original Spanish settlers, but are instead immigrants from Hispanic areas such as Cuba and Mexico. The original Hispanics to settle northern Florida blended into the rest of the population, and have practically ceased to be a recognizable portion of the population.
Today the U.S. Navy thrives in northeastern Florida and the Panhandle, with major bases in Jacksonville and Pensacola, and other smaller ones as well. There's also a major Air Force base on the Panhandle. The upshot of this is that these bases provide employment to significant swathes of the region's population. Other lines of employment are found in forest industries, such as wood-furniture manufacturing and paper manufacturing, and in tourism.
Passing through northeast Florida or vacationing in the Panhandle, the locals will strike you as vastly different from the inhabitants of other regions in the state, like Central Florida or southern Florida. This is mostly because northern Floridians are the more original Caucasian inhabitants in the state, as opposed to the southern Floridians who made their way south later - like in the 1920s onward.
The locals in the region enjoy taking advantage of outdoor activities such as hiking and fishing. Many are big fans of NASCAR and all things having to do with racing. A popular pastime for the locals around here is going to flea markets, which can be found in abundance in Jacksonville, but also in Crystal River, St. Augustine, Panama City, and other locations.
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