THE COUNTY THAT TIME FORGOT

Road-tripping an isolated stretch of the Florida Panhandle.

Adam O'Brien

Franklin County, Florida, is an off-menu tourist spot on the shores of Apalachicola Bay. It’s wedged between Tallahassee and Panama City, but far enough off the beaten track to have been left out of Florida tourism promotions for years, earning it the moniker, “The Forgotten Coast.” A blessing and a curse, this remoteness is also the reason it’s probably Florida’s most uncorrupted stretch along the Gulf Coast—you won’t find high rises and strip malls here. Most of Franklin County is water, and almost 90 percent of it is protected nature preserve— coastal swamps, forests, rivers, and bays. This lack of habitable land contributes to it being Florida’s third-least populated county. For such a beautiful strip of coastline, the population is surprisingly sparse—barely 10 people per square mile. The county seat…

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ROVA (Digital) - 1 Issue, Forty-Five: October/November 2024

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