Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Laurel Hill, FL

Laurel Hill is the northernmost incorporated city in the entire state of Florida, sitting in the Panhandle hills of Okaloosa County near the Alabama line.

The area was one of the first English-speaking settlements in Florida after the United States acquired it from Spain: settlers founded a community called Almirante - Spanish for "admiral" - in 1821, and it opened its own post office on January 31, 1827.

The Yellow River Railroad reached the area in 1892 and sparked a lumber boom; in 1895 the community was platted and renamed Laurel Hill, reportedly for a large laurel tree that grew in the center of town.

Laurel Hill was officially incorporated as a city in 1905, and was reincorporated on June 2, 1953 to fund infrastructure improvements.

In 1915 Laurel Hill was the largest community in newly created Okaloosa County, but it lost the county seat to the more centrally located Crestview.

Laurel Hill had 584 residents at the 2020 census, living in 225 households, up from 537 people in 2010.

Laurel Hill School's sports teams are called the Hoboes - reportedly the only school in the United States with that mascot name.

Since 1992 the city has celebrated its railroad-hobo heritage with the annual Laurel Hill Hobo Festival, held on the first Saturday in October.

At about 256 feet above sea level, Laurel Hill sits on some of the highest ground in famously flat Florida.

Laurel Hill keeps Central Time, like the rest of the western Florida Panhandle, and has a humid subtropical climate.