Jaxlore: Folklore, Urban Legends, and Regionalisms

2. The Lost Town of Cowford
Downtown Jacksonville


Image courtesy of USF Libraries Digitization Center

Easily the most pervasive legend about Jacksonville is that the city was originally a town bearing the rather undistinguished name of “Cowford.” This story circulates in official accounts and classroom curriculums, but there’s one problem: it’s not quite true.

There definitely was a “Cowford,” or more usually “Cow Ford”: it was a crossing at the St. Johns River narrows where the town of Jacksonville was eventually established, used for driving cattle across. The Seminole reputedly knew the Cow Ford as “Waca Pilatka,” a corrupted Creek phrase essentially meaning “cow’s crossing.”  During Florida’s British period (1764-1784), the new government built the King’s Road, which crossed the St. Johns at the Cow Ford. They established a ferry in 1765.  Visitors to the Cow Ford included John Bartram in 1766 and his son William Bartram in 1774.

While the Cow Ford was an increasingly important crossing, the small community living nearby was no town. In fact, for years most activity, including the ferry, focused on the south side of the river. In 1822, area landowners led by Isaiah D. Hart donated property to create a new town on the north bank. In June of that year (the exact day is lost), they surveyed the 20 blocks that would become Jacksonville.   If anyone ever conceived of calling this new town “Cowford,” they must have thought better of it very quickly, as the founders signed a petition on June 15 asking that their town of Jacksonville – named for former military governor Andrew Jackson  – be designated a port of entry.  


Plaque commemorating the Cow Ford in Downtown Jacksonville. Katie Delaney

Popular history is often averse to nuance, and over time the phrase “the Jacksonville area was previously known as the Cow Ford” became “Jacksonville was previously known as Cowford.” In the 20th century this ostensible town of Cowford became embedded in the local imagination. Today, it survives in the names of numerous local businesses and institutions, such as the American Cancer Society’s annual Cowford Ball and improv troupe Mad Cowford. Cowford also returns whenever some wag wants to highlight Jacksonville’s more backward characteristics; for instance, a 2012 Florida Times-Union column called City Council members opposing protections for LGBT citizens “leaders worthy of Cowford.”