The Humble Origins of Flagler Country, Florida

Situated between Daytona Beach to the south and Jacksonville to the north, on Florida's eastern coast, Flagler County �- now one of the quickest growing areas in the country -- was founded way back in 1917. The county was named for Henry Morrison Flagler, a famous railroad builder who built the Florida East Coast Railway.

By far, the county's most prominent city is Palm Coast. The number of residents there was 32,732 at the 2000 national census, but as of 2004 that number had jumped to 44,427 and has continued to grow at a very quick rate, due to both immigration and annexation.

According to a March 16, 2006 report from the U.S. Census Bureau, Flagler County was the quickest-growing county for the second year in a row with a 10.7 percent residency increase from July 1, 2004, to July 1, 2005. With 76,410 residents, the county also was first in the nation with a 53 percent population increase since Census 2000.

Flagler County has a rich history; one which goes back over 200 years. During the late 1800's (1861-1875), in the period of colonization by European powers, hostilities between Spanish forces based in St. Augustine and French based further north escalated, Flagler Beach became the scene of a dramatic but inconclusive naval fracas that was waged off shore. The fight took a strange turn as a violent storm overtook the French ships, pushing them southwards and wrecking them on the beach close to what is currently know as Ponce de Leon Inlet. The story of the ensuing brutal massacre of the surviving French troops is memorialized at Fort Matanzas National Park attraction.

Taking a big leap forward to the 1860's and the Civil War and Reconstruction, Flagler County was on the Confederate side and helped that cause through military service and the supply of timber, beef, citrus cotton and salt. Salt was in short supply and much valued as meat preservative. At the Mala Compra Plantation, the salt works were a critical source, but Union patrols caused the area to be viewed as insecure and the operation was moved eastward to the coast. There the huge iron vats from the St. Joseph sugar plantation were used to boil sea water to produce salt.

In the modern era, the post WWII 'boom' was a little late in arriving in Flagler County. It came in the form of a highway now known as I-95 and the ITT Corporation. Plans made public in 1969, which established the city of Palm Coast, encompassed 48,000 home sites on approximately 42,000 acres of the 68,000 acres controlled by ITT.

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Matthew Paolini is Citybook.com's compliance officer for the Nashua, NH business Yellow Pages division.