The Red Hills or Tallahassee Hills is a region of gently rolling hills in the

southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern po ...

. It is a geomorphic region and an

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas o ...

Location

The Red Hills physiographic region of northern Florida was defined in 1914 as most of Leon County north of the Cody Scarp, and small portions of southernmost Grady and

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the ...

counties in Georgia. The original tree cover of the region was a

shortleaf pine ''Pinus echinata'', the shortleaf pine, is a species of pine native to the southeastern United States. Description The tree is variable in form, sometimes straight, sometimes crooked, with an irregular crown. The tree reaches heights of with a ...

-oak-hickory woodland with deep sandy clay soil. A wider definition of the Red Hills Region includes

Jefferson County, Florida Jefferson County is a county located in the Big Bend region in the northern part of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,510. Its county seat is Monticello. Jefferson County is part of the Tallahassee, FL ...

north of the Cody Scarp and the southern portions of Grady and Thomas counties in Georgia. This larger region consists of about that is bounded by the

Aucilla River The Aucilla River rises in Brooks County, Georgia, USA, close to Thomasville, and passes through the Big Bend region of Florida, emptying into the Gulf of Mexico at Apalachee Bay. Some early maps called it the Ocilla River. It is long and ha ...

on the east and northeast, by the

Ochlockonee River The Ochlockonee River ( ) is a fast running river, except where it has been dammed to form Lake Talquin in Florida, originating in Georgia and flowing for before terminating in Florida. Background The name is from the Hitchiti language word ...

on the west and northwest, and by the Cody Scarp on the south. The Red Hills physiographic region is part of the Tallahassee Hills/Valdosta Limesink

, which extends across northern Florida and southern Georgia from the Apalachicola River to the vicinity of

Valdosta, Georgia Valdosta is a city in and the county seat of Lowndes County, Georgia, United States. As of 2019, Valdosta had an estimated population of 56,457. Valdosta is the principal city of the Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in 2021 had ...

. A wider Red Hills section of Florida has been defined as extending along the Alabama and Georgia borders, including, from east to west,

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

, Jefferson, Leon,

Gadsden Gadsden may refer to: Places *Gadsden, Alabama **Gadsden Depot, a United States Army Depot in the city of Gadsden, Alabama *Gadsden, Arizona *Gadsden, Indiana * Gadsden, South Carolina * Gadsden, Tennessee * Gadsden County, Florida * Gadsden Ind ...

and Jackson counties. There is a Red Hills Physiographic Province in south central Alabama.

History

The area was first settled by Paleo-Indians in and around the various lakes in the southern part of the Red Hills. The

Apalachee The Apalachee were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, specifically an Indigenous people of Florida, who lived in the Florida Panhandle until the early 18th century. They lived between the Aucilla River and Ochlockonee River, ...

were found here in the 16th century, and were almost annihilated through wars, disease, and slavery. In the 18th century, the

Seminoles The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...

made the Red Hills their home until the early 19th century and the

Seminole Wars The Seminole Wars (also known as the Florida Wars) were three related military conflicts in Florida between the United States and the Seminole, citizens of a Native American nation which formed in the region during the early 1700s. Hostilities ...

. Also in the 19th century, white settlers began cotton

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...

s, which thrived until the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...

. At one time,

Leon County, Florida Leon County is a county in the Panhandle of the U.S. state of Florida. It was named after the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León. As of the 2020 census, the population was 292,198. The county seat is Tallahassee, which is also the state ca ...

, was the 5th largest producer of cotton among all counties in Georgia and Florida. After the Civil War, many of the Red Hills' plantations became winter homes and quail hunting plantations for wealthy northerners; the area between Thomasville and Tallahassee is still home to dozens of such plantations, such as Greenwood, Pebble Hill, and Goodwood.

Geography

Rolling hills,

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion.gullies covered by forests and the large lakes of Lake Jackson, Lake Iamonia,

Lake Miccosukee Lake Miccosukee is a large swampy prairie lake in northern Jefferson County, Florida, located east of the settlement of Miccosukee. A small portion of the lake, its northwest corner, is located in Leon County. The small town of Miccosukee, F ...

, Lake Lafayette, and Lake Talquin. The highest point in the Red Hills is north of Tallahassee by . The soil is red clay deposited during the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

from the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. The ...

. Rivers running through the Red Hills Region are the

, and Telogia Creek. The St. Marks River is

subterranean Subterranean(s) or The Subterranean(s) may refer to: * Subterranea (geography), underground structures, both natural and man-made Literature * ''Subterranean'' (novel), a 1998 novel by James Rollins * '' Subterranean Magazine'', an American f ...

until it meets the surface in the Woodville Karst Plain.

Flora and fauna

Trees

The area is covered in a number of native species. There are a variety of oak including

southern live oak ''Quercus virginiana'', also known as the southern live oak, is an evergreen oak tree endemic to the Southeastern United States. Though many other species are loosely called live oak, the southern live oak is particularly iconic of the Old South ...

, water oak,

laurel oak Laurel oak may refer to two species of trees native to the southeastern United States: * '' Quercus hemisphaerica'', sometimes called sand laurel oak or Darlington oak * '' Quercus laurifolia'', sometimes called swamp laurel oak, diamond-leaf oak, ...

white oak The genus ''Quercus'' contains about 500 species, some of which are listed here. The genus, as is the case with many large genera, is divided into subgenera and sections. Traditionally, the genus ''Quercus'' was divided into the two subgenera ' ...

, overcup oak,

post oak ''Quercus stellata'', the post oak or iron oak, is a North American species of oak in the white oak section. It is a slow-growing oak that lives in dry areas on the edges of fields, tops of ridges also grows in poor soils, and is resistant to r ...

black oak Black Oak may refer to: Places in the United States * Black Oak, Arkansas * Black Oak, Daviess County, Indiana * Black Oak, Lake County, Indiana, a neighborhood of Gary, Indiana Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The ...

as well as other hardwood trees such as

American sweetgum American sweetgum (''Liquidambar styraciflua''), also known as American storax, hazel pine, bilsted, redgum, satin-walnut, star-leaved gum, alligatorwood, or simply sweetgum, is a deciduous tree in the genus ''Liquidambar'' native to warm temper ...

, a variety of

magnolia ''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendro ...

, as well as

hickory Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in M ...

flowering dogwood ''Cornus florida'', the flowering dogwood, is a species of flowering tree in the family Cornaceae native to eastern North America and northern Mexico. An endemic population once spanned from southernmost coastal Maine south to northern Florid ...

red maple ''Acer rubrum'', the red maple, also known as swamp maple, water maple, or soft maple, is one of the most common and widespread deciduous trees of eastern and central North America. The U.S. Forest Service recognizes it as the most abundant nati ...

, and redbud.

Conifers Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ex ...

are also abundant, including

, and

loblolly pine ''Pinus taeda'', commonly known as loblolly pine, is one of several pines native to the Southeastern United States, from East Texas to Florida, and north to southern New Jersey. The wood industry classifies the species as a southern yellow pine. U ...

. The Red Hills are home to some of the last remnants of the great

longleaf pine The longleaf pine (''Pinus palustris'') is a pine species native to the Southeastern United States, found along the coastal plain from East Texas to southern Virginia, extending into northern and central Florida. In this area it is also known as ...

forests remaining in the nation.

Animal life

The Red Hills Region supports the northern bobwhite quail,

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

, red fox,

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight o ...

eastern gray squirrel The eastern gray squirrel (''Sciurus carolinensis''), also known, particularly outside of North America, as simply the grey squirrel, is a tree squirrel in the genus '' Sciurus''. It is native to eastern North America, where it is the most pro ...

nine-banded armadillo The nine-banded armadillo (''Dasypus novemcinctus''), also known as the nine-banded long-nosed armadillo or common long-nosed armadillo, is a mammal found in North, Central, and South America, making it the most widespread of the armadillos. I ...

, black bear, migratory bird, federally endangered

red-cockaded woodpecker The red-cockaded woodpecker (''Leuconotopicus borealis'') is a woodpecker endemic to the southeastern United States. Description The red-cockaded woodpecker is small to mid-sized species, being intermediate in size between North America's two ...

gopher tortoise The gopher tortoise (''Gopherus polyphemus'') is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae. The species is native to the southeastern United States. The gopher tortoise is seen as a keystone species because it digs burrows that provi ...

eastern diamondback rattlesnake The eastern diamondback rattlesnake (''Crotalus adamanteus'') is a species of pit viper in the family Viperidae. The species is endemic to the Southeastern United States. It is one of the heaviest venomous snakes in the Americas and the largest ...

, eastern tiger salamander, and many other animals and plants.Oxford Journals: Stand structures on quail plantations
/ref>

Features

The Red Hills Region serves as one of the highest recharge areas for the Floridan aquifer — which is critical to the drinking water supply for residents of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

, and

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

. The Red Hills Region also has the largest concentration of undeveloped

lands in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. The Red Hills has been identified for special conservation efforts, and

The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in 1951, The Natu ...

has designated the Red Hills as one of America's "Last Great Places."

Namesake event

Each spring, the equestrian community meets for the

Red Hills Horse Trials The Red Hills Horse Trials is held in Tallahassee, in the U.S. state of Florida and is one of the equestrian world's top events. It is an annual major eventing competition held by the United States Eventing Association, Area III and the 16th event ...

, an

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

qualifying event held at Elinor Klapp-Phipps Park.

References

{{coord missing, Florida Regions of Florida Regions of Georgia (U.S. state)