Hamilton County is a county located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,004, down from 14,799 at the 2010 census. Its county seat is Jasper.
History
Hamilton County was created in 1827 from portions of Jefferson County. It was named for Alexander Hamilton, first United States Secretary of the Treasury.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (1.0%) is water. It is the only county in Florida entirely north of Interstate 10.
Hamilton County is the only county in Florida that is not connected to Florida by land. This is due to it being separated from neighboring Florida counties by river (the Suwannee and the Withlacoochee rivers). It does, however, touch Georgia via land.
Adjacent counties
- Echols County, Georgia - north
- Columbia County - east
- Suwannee County - south
- Madison County - west
- Lowndes County, Georgia - northwest
Major Highway
- <!--is the southeast-to-northwest interstate highway in the county, which enters from Suwannee County at bridges over the Suwannee River. It has three interchanges in the county with US 129 and SR 100 south of Jasper (Exit 451), SR 6 (Exit 460) west of Jasper, and SR/CR 143 in Jennings (Exits 467) before crossing the Georgia State Line -->
- <!-- was the main southeast to northeast route from Lake City to Georgia until it was supplanted by Interstate 75. -->
- <!-- runs south to north within Hamilton County from a bridge over the Suwannee River-at the Columbia County Line, later joining US 41 south of Jasper, only to break away from US 41 northwest of Jasper.->
- <!-- runs northeast from US 90 into eastern Madison County before entering in Hamilton County, then joins US 41, which later joins US 129 in Jasper before transforming into County Road 6. and crossing the Suwannee River before terminating at US 441 in Columbia County. -->
Railroads
The main railroad line through Hamilton County is the Norfolk Southern Railway's Navair District (originally the Georgia Southern and Florida Railway), which runs mostly in close proximity to US 41 from Lake City across a bridge over the Suwannee River and the Columbia-Hamilton County Line southeast of White Plains to the Florida-Georgia State Line northwest of Jennings. A former section of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's DuPont—Lakeland Line survives as a rail trail in Jasper.