[1][2] The county seat is Tallahassee,[3] which is also the state capital and home to many politicians, lobbyists, jurists, and attorneys.

[4] It was named after Juan Ponce de León, the Spanish explorer who was the first European to reach Florida.

In the 1830s, it attempted to conduct Indian Removal of the Seminole and Creek peoples, who had migrated south to escape European-American encroachment in Georgia and Alabama.

Uniquely among Confederate capitals east of the Mississippi River, in the American Civil War Tallahassee was never captured by Union forces.

The layers above the basement are carbonate rock created from dying foraminifera, bryozoa, mollusks, and corals from as early as the Paleocene, a period of ~66—55.8 Ma.

[7] During the Eocene (~55.8—33.9 Ma) and Oligocene (~33.9—23 Ma), the Appalachian Mountains began to uplift and the erosion rate increased enough to fill the Gulf Trough with quartz sands, silts, and clays via rivers and streams.

During the Pleistocene, what would be Leon County emerged and submerged with each glacial and interglacial period.

In 2007 the National Association of County Park and Recreation Officials recognized the county with its Environmental and Conservation Award for exceptional effort to reclaim, restore, preserve, acquire or develop unique and natural areas.

[18] Its political affiliations likely draw from the high number of students, staff, and faculty associated with Florida State University, Florida A&M University, and Tallahassee Community College in Tallahassee, as well as the concentration of government employees.

[20] Allison Tant (D), District 9, represents Leon County's northern half, including most of Tallahassee.

All of Leon County is represented by Corey Simon (R), District 3, in the Florida Senate.

Leon County is located in the 2nd congressional district after the 2020 census redistricting process was completed.

Roughly 36 percent of Leon County's 250,000 residents live outside the Tallahassee city limits.

Professor Richard Feiock of Florida State University found in a 2007 study that he could not conclude that consolidation would benefit the local economy.

It is home to nationally ranked programs in many academic areas, including law, business, engineering, medicine, social policy, film, music, theater, dance, visual art, political science, psychology, social work, and the sciences.

[32] For 2019, U.S. News & World Report ranked Florida State the country's 26th-best public university.

[34][35][36] FSU's intercollegiate sports teams, commonly called the Seminoles, compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

FAMU's main campus comprises 156 buildings spread over 422 acres (1.7 km2) on top of Tallahassee's highest geographic hill.

Top undergraduate programs are architecture, journalism, computer information sciences, and psychology.

FAMU's top graduate programs include pharmaceutical sciences, public health, physical therapy, engineering, physics, master's of applied social sciences (especially history and public administration), business, and sociology.

This program provides guaranteed admission to FSU for TSC Associate in Arts degree graduates.

Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie offered Tallahassee money to build a public library in 1906.

According to Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies, the library was built on the FAMU campus because the city refused the donation because it would have to serve the black citizens.

"The facility boasted modern amenities such as electricity, indoor plumbing and water supplied by the city.

By functioning both as a repository for archival records and a museum for historical regalia, the center continues to render academic support to educational institutions, civic, political, religious and social groups, as well as, public and private businesses throughout Florida and the nation.

"[47] A year later, the library was established by legislative action and developed by citizens and civic groups.

The vehicle was later donated to the Leon County Sheriff's Office to be used as a paddywagon for its Road Prison.

According to the library's website, "Leon County provided administrative and other services to the two smaller counties, while each supported the direct costs of their library services and their share of Leon's administrative costs.

"[47] In 1975 the system started a branch library in Bond, a predominantly black community on the city's south side.

In 1989, "ground breaking was held on March 4 for a new $8.5 million main library facility with 88,000 feet of space.