Thanks to Idalia, everyone knows where Florida's 'Big Bend' is

One small good thing that came from Hurricane Idalia is that a national audience now knows the greater Tallahassee region’s nickname: “The Big Bend.” For example, as NBC News explained, “The Big Bend, among the most Idalia-battered areas of Florida, is where the peninsula merges into the Panhandle, just southeast of the capital and well north of the Tampa metro area.” (Yes, “well north” indeed, NBC.) 

So where did “Big Bend” come from? The consensus is that it was coined by Tallahassee Democrat editor Malcolm Johnson, who ran the newspaper for nearly a quarter-century (1954-78). “For years, he was Mr. Tallahassee. He loved the place. He was a tremendous booster,” said Bill Edmonds, a former Democrat editor who wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Southern press and civil rights, including Johnson. 

At some point, he “thought that the area needed a name like the other proper places in Florida,” such as “Gold Coast” for South Florida. “And so he just looked at the map and came up with ‘Big Bend’ … inventing a name that worked and lasted,” Edmonds told City & State in a phone interview. 

Johnson’s passion for the area was such that he “thought we needed to have a nickname,” Edmonds added. “It was really a point of dignity, like all these places along the Atlantic and down around Tampa. He wanted to legitimize Tallahassee and (what’s now) the Big Bend area by giving it a name. And he realized how important it was.”