When I hear Florida residents at restaurants and attractions talking about Florida, I often cringe, for while I was conceived here, I spent my childhood up North; but as a historian and writer I realize that there are so many myths and false narratives about Florida.

And you don’t have to be the Chamber of Commerce to promote dumb Florida information – the entire population lives by many of these myths.

MYTH – Florida (we) are the “Sunshine State.”

REALITY – It is a nice logo, but there are four or five other states with more days of sunshine than Florida.  The good news is that all those states face sunny days with snow on the ground and freezing winds.  Florida is really “the Warm State” and that is why we’ll always get winter visitors.

MYTH – Florida is “tropical.”

REALITY – You might feel you are in the tropics if you are standing in line at Walt Disney World in July, but as a geography minor, I can vouch that the climate of Florida is officially “subtropical.”   That does not mean to stop using sunscreen lotion.

MYTH – Florida is the “endless summer.”

REALITY – I never thought a surfing movie or license plates could influence so many silly P.R. comments.  Key West is the only place in Florida that has NOT experienced freezing temperatures.  It has snowed even in Miami!  When I lived in Tallahassee I left the city one morning at 26 degrees and arrived in Fort Myers hours later at 77 degrees.

MYTH – Florida’s state tree is the “Sabel Palm.”

REALITY – Sadly the statement is correct, but the logic is lost.  Palm trees have no bark, shallow roots, and can not grow new tops (they die).  Palm trees are grasses.

The Sabel Palm is “the state grass.”  It was selected for it can live anywhere in Florida so it was s safer choice than the regal Royal Palm, a better looking “grass.”

MYTH – Florida is the “southernmost state.”

REALITY – Even the people in Key West have labeled their famous buoy correctly (see photograph), but I guess people don’t read or just prefer to brag about their travels.  Any global map will show that Hawaii is the southernmost state.

Floridians communicate lots of incorrect superlatives like Saint Augustine is the “oldest continuous city in the USA.”    That is a good try – but it is the oldest continuous European city, because New Mexico has older Indian pueblo cities.

MYTH – Ponce de Leon discovered Florida in 1513.

REALITY – This, of course, is right down my ally.  There are two maps showing Florida as part of a “North” America that predate Ponce de Leon’s visits.  One, in 1507 by Waldseemuller (see photo) is an incredibly good global view based upon Spanish and Portuguese trips.

Ponce de Leon’s journals even show he had no interest in locating any Fountain of Youth and only on the way back, he sent two sailors in a lifeboat to stop at Bimini, a possible fountain location.

MYTH – Chief Osceola was the great Seminole leader.

REALITY – It is difficult to fault people although the statement is filled in incorrection. Osceola “led” the Seminole forces in the Second Seminole War, but his mother was Choctaw and his father was a British fur trapper from Mobile.

He wed a Seminole and his knowledge of English gave him the knowledge that the entire Treaty of Fort Gibson was not revealed to the tribal leaders.  It should be noted that the Seminole casinos correctly describe the life of their greatest leader.

(DUMBEST) MYTH – Love bugs was a Florida Department of Agricultural experiment gone wrong.

REALITY – People driving south on I-75 near Gainesville might believe this when a wall of love-bugs smash into your windows.  Automobile dealers even use special anti-bug paints in Florida. 

The love bugs are not man-made. And they are found in other states.  They live deep into tall grasses so people only see them during their short-lived mating season.  Love bugs will NEVER be the state bug of Florida.

(NEXT DUMBEST) – Tourists coming to Florida for the first time should fear X.

REALITY – There are many versions of this, although the dumbest is a rumor that Florida has “toilet spiders” – a species that lurk just under the toilet seat.  I caused a professor of biology far over laughing on that one.

Other choices include real but rarely seen Florida creatures: coral snakes, black widow spiders, rattlesnakes, and tarantulas. In fifty years, I have only seen them in zoos and nature exhibits.  I have seen alligators, sharks, and barracudas, but I assume you will not swim at midnight nor jump madly off the end of a Florida dock.