Cross City, FL

Cross City is Dixie County's seat on U.S. 19/98, the north-south road that ties the town to the Gulf Coast and the inland communities. The name came from the roads crossing here, and the location made sense for a county seat after Dixie County was created. Timber was the other big reason the town mattered: cypress, pine, and live oak moved through the area, and Putnam Lumber built the nearby company town of Shamrock along with the 1927 Putnam Lodge for lumber buyers.

ATTRMichael Rivera / CC BY-SA 4.0

The old railroad route now gives Cross City a different kind of connection. The former depot serves as a trailhead for the 32-mile Nature Coast State Trail, and the rail-trail runs toward Trenton, Fanning Springs, and Chiefland. The Suwannee River, the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge, Horseshoe Beach, and the Gulf are all part of the wider map. Cross City still has the courthouse-town role, but its local story is really a combination of roads, timber, rail, and the long reach from inland Dixie County to the coast.