
Exploring Monticello
The courthouse in the middle of Monticello evokes its namesake, a tribute to Thomas Jefferson by Jefferson County. Not far from this compact county seat are notable archaeological sites near the shores of cypress-lined Lake Miccosukee.
The county is tall and thin, stretching down to the Big Bend coastline where the Aucilla River meets the Gulf of Mexico. Dense floodplain forests fill the space between the Pinhook, Wacissa, and Aucilla Rivers, especially in the designated wilderness of St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, which the Florida Trail traverses.