Wewahitchka, FL

Wewahitchka is a Gulf County city at the junction of Florida 71 and 22, west of the Chipola River and southwest of the Dead Lakes. The 2020 Census counted 2,074 residents. The name comes from a Native American expression meaning “water eyes,” a reference to the eye-shaped Lake Julia and Lake Alice. From 1925 to 1965, Wewahitchka served as Gulf County’s seat before that role moved to Port St. Joe, and the old courthouse remains part of the town’s historical landscape.

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Water and honey still organize the local calendar. The Dead Lakes preserve cypress trunks and stumps in the floodplain, while tupelo trees in the Apalachicola River basin support a beekeeping tradition that has lasted more than a century. Wewahitchka hosts a Tupelo Honey Festival each May, and local schools include Wewahitchka Elementary and Wewahitchka High. Florida 71 and 22 carry the town toward Blountstown, Port St. Joe, and Panama City, connecting a small inland city to the rivers, lakes, farms, and coastal communities around it.