Jefferson County Information

Visit the official Jefferson County web site.

Local Websites and Pages

 Facts, Statistics and other Information about Jefferson County

Agriculture, Natural Resources, Climate, Weather, Geography, and Such

Directories, Lists, People, Who's Who?

Cooperative Extension Sites

 

Larry Halsey
County Extension Director

courthouse

Over the doors of the 1909 Courthouse is the motto Suum Cuique, meaning "To Each His Own" but locally translated as "Sue ‘Em Quick." (from Florida's Historic Courthouses)

 

keystone

Jefferson County is called the Keystone County, where the panhandle meets the peninsula.  The county is traditionally rural, but is transitioning to a bedroom community.

600 square miles, and not a single stop light

We enjoy a slower, closer-to-natural life in this region that Gloria Jahoda called the “other Florida.”  We have extensive green space in our plantations, forests, pastures and farms, and we’re blessed with clean, relatively abundant water.

  • There’s foliage color change in the fall and seasonal temperature change, but there are no county-wide water or sewer systems. 
  • The Development Code calls for at least 5 acres of land for homesites over much of the county. Residential developments must now meet concurrency for paved roads and stormwater management.  But many rural roads are unpaved. 
  • Night noise is usually crickets, frogs and mosquitoes rather than traffic.
  • We have dentists and private clinics and an excellent Health Department.  There are a few used car dealers.  But you travel to Thomasville or Tallahassee for hospital care and new cars.
  • You’ll need to get used to well water and septic tanks, and how to manage them if you’re relocating from a more urbanized place.  There’s a spray-on-request mosquito control program with the Health Department. 
  • If you're new here, the people at the Chamber of Commerce, church congregations, real estate agencies and banks, staff of Extension and other County departments and most any one at a barber or beauty shop will be glad to offer you helpful tips on living among the critters.
  • About 51% of the private, non-farm workforce commutes outside the County for employment, mostly to Tallahassee.
  • Jefferson County is a “fiscally constrained county” located in a “region of critical economic concern.”