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.
Today Tallahassee is a green capital that runs on government and learning. The Legislature meets under the dome; two universities — Florida State and the historic Florida A&M — fill the city with students and shade their campuses with the same oaks. Around them are camellias and reflecting pools at Maclay Gardens, fountains and an amphitheater at Cascades Park, studios and murals at Railroad Square, the Museum of Florida History downtown, and, a short drive south, the vast clear bowl of Wakulla Springs. For a state capital, it stays remarkably unhurried and leafy.
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.
