Dixie County
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The lands which are now Dixie County have a rich history. With the Steinhatchee River on the west and the Suwannee River on the east, it was prime land for the Native Americans and early settlers. According from one source, the first white man to come to the Dixie area was in 1820, a young man named George Miller who was from North Carolina. He became friends with Suwannee and Bowlegs, Native Americans, and sons of Chief Tigertail and his wife, Suwannee, of the Seminole tribe, who settled in the region around Lake Miccosukee near what is now Tallahassee. With the blessings of the Indians, Miller settled in the area. He planted corn and peanuts and raised cattle and hogs. Ten years later he was to die from malaria and buried into what is now known as Old Town.

Dixie County was created in 1921 from the southern regions of Lafayette County. The original county seat was Old Town, later moved to Cross City. Two roads crossed here at a village originally as Hitchcock.  The county’s history includes a battle at Old Town on US 19, where Chief Billy Bowlegs met up with Andrew Jackson during Indian Wars. Old Town was the site of a factory where Spanish moss was turned into furniture and mattresses.

Dixie County is bounded on the north by Lafayette County, on the east by Gilchrist and Levy Counties, on the south by Levy County and the Gulf of Mexico, on the west by the Gulf of Mexico and Taylor County. The border lines as Nature has outlined them on the east, south and west, have not been altered since the days of West Florida. The changes have affected only the size and shape of the northern areas. (Chap. 8514, Acts 1921)

This is, indeed, a favored spot, protected, enriched and beautified by two superlative miracles of Nature – the glamorous Suwannee washing its eastern shores, the foamy Gulf yielding its treasures on the south and west. Large hammocks, some of which are miles in width, cover the Suwannee River valley. These hammocks are thickly wooded, containing millions of feet of valuable timber, and sheltering harmless creatures of the wild. Songbirds such as the mockingbird, the red cardinal, the thrush, and many other birds abide here the year round.