Pierson, FL

Pierson is a Volusia County town on U.S. 17 and County Road 3, the northwesternmost incorporated town in the county. The 2020 census counted 1,542 residents. For over a century, agriculture has driven the place, especially fern growing. In 1904 Peter Pierson and his son Eugene received asparagus plumosus plants from a Connecticut relative; the crop thrived in Florida and turned Pierson into the Fern Capital of the World. The name still fits the roadside view, where fields and fern houses fill the spaces between homes.

ATTRFcoulter / CC BY-SA 3.0

The fern trade gives the town a recognizable local rhythm. The town incorporated in 1926, and the old 1926 school building now holds Pierson Town Center and government offices. Farms and fern houses spread around the roads, while larger trips point toward Daytona Beach, Orlando, Jacksonville, and Gainesville. Pierson's local scoop is a farming town with a very specific crop at its center, a schoolhouse turned town hall, and a nickname that grew straight out of the fields.