First Coast: Difference between revisions

| photo3b=BMHousePalatkaPalm Coast Sunset.JPGjpg

|image_caption= Left to right from top: [[United States Post Office, Custom House, and Courthouse (Fernandina, Florida)|United States Post Office, Custom House, and Courthouse]] in [[Fernandina Beach, Florida|Fernandina Beach]], [[Lightner Museum]] in [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]], [[HemmingJames Weldon Johnson Park]] in [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]], [[Downtown Jacksonville]] skyline, [[Jacksonville Beach]] Pier, the [[Bronson-MulhollandMatanzas HouseRiver]] in [[PalatkaPalm Coast, Florida|PalatkaPalm Coast]].

'''Florida's First Coast''', or simply the '''First Coast''', is a [[List of regions of the United States#Florida|region]] of the U.S. state of [[Florida]], located on the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] coast of [[North Florida]]. The First Coast refers to the same general area as the directional region of '''Northeast Florida'''. It consists roughly comprisesof the five counties surroundingabutting [[Jacksonville]]: {{mdash}}[[Duval County, Florida|Duval]], [[Baker County, Florida|Baker]], [[Clay County, Florida|Clay]], [[Nassau County, Florida|Nassau]], and [[St. Johns County, Florida|St. Johns]], largely corresponding to the [[Jacksonville metropolitan area]], {{mdash}}and may include other nearby areas such as [[PutnamFlagler County, Florida|PutnamFlagler County]] and [[FlaglerPutnam County, Florida|Flagler]] counties in Florida and [[CamdenPutnam County, Georgia]]. The name originated in a marketing campaign in the 1980s, and has persistedbecome inpart of Florida's regional vernacular.

The First Coast is similar to Florida's various other [[List of coasts of Florida|"Coast" regions]] such as the [[Space Coast]] and the [[Gold Coast (Florida)|Gold Coast]] that emerged as a result of marketing campaigns.<ref name=Lamme330331/> The name refers both to the area's geographic status as the "first coast" that many visitors reach when entering Florida, as well as to the region's history as the first place in the continental United States to see European contact and settlement.<ref name=Lamme332333>Lamme & Oldakowski, pp. 332–333.</ref> [[Juan Ponce de León]] may have landed in this region during his first expedition in 1513, and the early French colony of [[Fort Caroline]] was founded in present-day Jacksonville in 1564. Significantly, the First Coast includes [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]], the oldest continuously inhabited European-established city in the continental U.S., founded by the Spanish in 1565.<ref name=Calnan/>

The term "First Coast" became very popular through the 1980s, surprising even its creators. In 1990, Duval County opened its first new high schools in nearly 20 years, and at one of them, the students chose to name their school [[First Coast High School]]. By 2002, nearly 800 organizations and businesses included "First Coast" in their name, to the point that Jacksonville's [[NBC]] and [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] affiliates, [[WTLV]] and [[WJXX]] (both jointly owned and operated by [[Tegna, Inc.|Tegna]]), have branded their [[local news]] operation as "First Coast News" since the early 2000s.<ref name=Calnan/> Lamme and Oldakowski found that in 2007, 18% of Floridians surveyed were familiar with the First Coast, making it one of the best-known vernacular regions by Floridians.<ref>Lamme & Oldakowski, p. 333.</ref> The First Coast identity has spread to other nearby areas, being found as far south as [[Flagler Beach, Florida|Flagler Beach]] in [[Flagler County, Florida]] and [[Palatka, Florida|Palatka]] in [[Putnam County, Florida]], and as far north as [[St. Mary's, Georgia]].<ref name=Dixon>{{cite news |title= Historic Coast latest in a growing number of Florida coastal monikers|author= Drew Dixon|url= http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-07-27/story/historic-coast-latest-growing-number-florida-coastal-monikers |newspaper= [[The Florida Times-Union]] |date= July 28, 2013 |access-date=February 28, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2015-feb-jaxlore-folklore-urban-legends-and-regionalisms |title= Jaxlore: Folklore, Urban Legends, and Regionalisms |last1= Delaney |first1= Bill |date= February 8, 2015 |website= www.metrojacksonville.com |publisher= [[Metro Jacksonville]] |access-date= February 5, 2015 }}</ref> In 2013, the ''[[Florida Times-Union]]'' noted that within the area, St. Johns County had begun to brand itself as the "Historic Coast".<ref name=Dixon/>

*{{cite journal |last1= Lamme |first1= Ary J. |last2= Oldakowski |first2= Raymond K. |year= 2007 |title= Spinning a New Geography of Vernacular Regional Identity: Florida in the Twenty-First Century |journal= Southeastern Geographer |volume= 47 |issue= 2 |pages= 320–340 |publisher= University of North Carolina Press |doi= 10.1353/sgo.2007.0029|s2cid= 129577530 }}

{{Geography of Florida}}