Levy County is a county located on the Gulf coast in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 42,915.[1] Its county seat is Bronson.[2]

History

Levy County was created in 1845, after the Seminole Wars. It was named for David Levy Yulee, a planter elected in 1841 as the state's territorial delegate to the US House of Representatives, where he served two terms.

Levy provided for long-term development in the state by constructing the first railroad across Florida, the Florida Railroad, linking the deep-water ports of Fernandina (Port of Fernandina) on the Atlantic Ocean and Cedar Key on the Gulf of Mexico.

The Rosewood Massacre occurred in Levy County in the first week of January 1923. White citizens from the nearby town of Sumner, reacting to a what turned out to be a false accusation that a black man raped a white woman, burned the predominantly black town of Rosewood to the ground and brutally murdered several of Rosewood's black citizens. A film based on the incident was made in 1997, but was not filmed in Levy County.[citation needed]

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,413 square miles (3,660 km2), of which 1,118 square miles (2,900 km2) is land and 295 square miles (760 km2) (20.9%) is water.[4]