Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Jasper Jasper, FL

Jasper is the county seat of Hamilton County, one of Florida's original counties, created on December 26, 1827 and named for Alexander Hamilton.

The town was named for Sergeant William Jasper, a Revolutionary War hero who died defending Savannah, Georgia, after early settler Daniel Bell championed the name with the territorial legislature.

Jasper was first incorporated as a town in 1850 and then as the City of Jasper on March 2, 1858.

The city's official motto is "Florida's Front Porch."

Jasper's population was 3,621 at the 2020 census, spread across just 658 households — a mismatch explained by the large population living in group quarters.

Jasper's census history is unusual: its population jumped from 1,780 in 2000 to 4,546 in 2010 only because the city annexed land containing the Hamilton Correctional Institution, and in 2020 the census counted 319 men for every 100 women in the city.

The Old Hamilton County Jail and the First United Methodist Church in Jasper are both listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Jasper's brick courthouse, first built in 1891, was damaged by fire in 1929 and rebuilt in 1931-1932.

Phosphate mining is one of the largest industries in Jasper today, the latest turn in an economy that cycled through cotton, turpentine, pine lumber and tobacco.

In the late 1800s, the Jasper Normal Institute in Jasper was considered one of the leading schools in the state of Florida.