Florida: If The Gators Don't Get You Then The Fire Ants Will

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Florida
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Florida (disambiguation).

State of Florida



(Flag of Florida)



(Seal of Florida)




State nickname: Sunshine State, Everglade State

Other U.S. States
Capital Tallahassee
Largest city Jacksonville
Governor Jeb Bush
Official languages English
Area 170,451 km² (22nd)
- Land 137,374 km²
- Water 30,486 km² (17.9%)
Population (2000)
- Population 15,982,378 (4th)
- Density 114.43 /km² (8th)
Admission into Union
- Date March 3, 1845
- Order 27th
Time zone Eastern: UTC-5/-4
Central: UTC-6/-5 (western panhandle)
Latitude 24°30'N to 31°N
Longitude 79°48'W to 87°38'W
Width 260 km
Length 800 km
Elevation
- Highest 105 m
- Mean 30 m
- Lowest 0 m
Abbreviations
- USPS FL
- ISO 3166-2 US-FL
Web site www.myflorida.com
Florida is a southern state in the United States. It is known as the Sunshine State. "Florida" is a Spanish adjective which means "flowery". It was discovered by Spanish explorers during the Easter season, which is called Pascua Florida in Spanish. The U.S. Postal abbreviation is FL.

USS Florida was named in honor of this state.

Contents
1 History

2 Law and Government

3 Taxation

4 Geography

5 Climate

6 Economy

7 Demographics

7.1 Race
7.2 Religion


8 Important cities and towns

8.1 City Population
8.2 Wealthiest Cities


9 Education

9.1 Colleges and universities


10 Sports

10.1 Professional sports teams in Florida
10.2 Spring training
10.3 Minor League teams


11 External links




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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida

[trotsky]

1. Never looked at the state seal before.

So that's how it pretty much went, then, with natives bearing flowers just waiting for the Spaniards to arrive?

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2. About The Great Seal of the State of Florida

The Florida State Seal
The Florida State Seal: Color and Black and White.


In 1985, Secretary of State George Firestone presented the revised Great Seal of the State of Florida to the Governor and the Cabinet. The previous State Seal had several errors which were corrected in in the 1985 Seal. This revised Seal has a Seminole Indian woman rather than a Western Plains Indian, the steamboat is more accurate, and the cocoa palm has been changed to a sabal palm as the Legislature prescribed in 1970.



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HISTORY OF THE STATE SEAL 1868-1985

The elements and basic design instructions for Florida's State Seal were established by the Legislature in 1868. Early that year, Florida's newly adopted State Constitution had directed that:"The Legislature shall, at the first session, adopt a seal for the state, and such seal shall be the size of an American silver dollar, but said seal shall not again be changed after its adoption by the Legislature."



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So the Legislature, acting quickly upon the mandate, passed and sent to Governor Harrison Reed a Joint Resolution on August 6, 1868 specifying "That a Seal of the size of the American silver dollar, having in the center thereof a view of the sun's rays over a high land in the distance, a cocoa tree, a steamboat on water, and an Indian female scattering flowers in the foreground, encircled by the words, 'Great Seal of the State of Florida: In God We Trust', be and the same is hereby adopted as the Great Seal of the State of Florida." Some people also consider the "In God We Trust" phrase the State Motto, although there is no official designation of a State Motto in the Florida Statutes.




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Florida's present Constitution, (Art. II, Sec. 4), continues to require the seal to be prescribed by law. In 1970, more than 100 years after the first specifications were drawn, the Florida Legislature made one change in the official description (CH. 15.03), changing "cocoa tree" in the former language to "Sabal palmetto palm." The sabal palmetto palm had been designated as State Tree in 1953.



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http://dhr.dos.state.fl.us/facts/symbols/seals.cfm