Our Tallahassee logo carries Florida's alligator above ‘Florida Territory — Est. 1845,’ the shared retro emblem of our Florida towns; the gator is the state's wild icon, and 1845 marks the year Florida joined the Union. Rendered in the black-and-white of an old crate stamp, it ties Tallahassee to every other Florida town we make. What makes this one the capital is the setting behind it — the canopy oaks, the candy-striped dome, and the Red Hills rolling away to the north.
But people had lived on this ground for thousands of years. The Apalachee built earthen mounds here — the great ceremonial center now preserved at Lake Jackson Mounds — and farmed the rich red soil. In the winter of 1539, Hernando de Soto's expedition seized the Apalachee town of Anhaica, on a site about half a mile east of today's Capitol, and kept what is often called the first Christmas in the continental United States. It is worth saying plainly that de Soto's march brought violence and disease to the Apalachee; the ‘first Christmas’ was also the opening of a long and ruinous contact.
Why People Visit Tallahassee
Tallahassee blends civic history with surprising green space. Visitors mix the capitol buildings and downtown museums with canopy-road drives, gardens, and easy urban trails. It is scholarly, calm, and quietly scenic, with year-round appeal in its parks, paths, and public spaces. This is Old Florida and the modern capital at once — history and everyday culture sitting side by side under the oaks in a welcoming way.
