Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Steinhatchee Steinhatchee, FL

Steinhatchee is an unincorporated Gulf Coast community and census-designated place in southern Taylor County, on Florida's Big Bend coast — it is not an incorporated town.

The village sits where the Steinhatchee River flows into the Gulf of Mexico, about 38 miles south of Perry, the Taylor County seat.

Since the early 19th century, Steinhatchee has been a working waterfront village built on the timber industry — especially cedar cut for making pencils — along with fishing, crabbing and scalloping.

Steinhatchee is famous across Florida for its summer bay scalloping season, which draws visitors from all over the state to harvest scallops in the shallow Gulf grass flats.

The 2020 census counted 1,049 residents in Steinhatchee, living in 537 households.

More than 65 percent of Steinhatchee's 1,567 housing units stood vacant at the 2020 census, reflecting the community's large stock of seasonal and second homes.

The median age in Steinhatchee was 62.4 years at the 2020 census, and about 44 percent of its residents were 65 years of age or older.

Steinhatchee was struck by three hurricanes in two years — Idalia in 2023, Debby, which made landfall near the village in August 2024, and Helene in September 2024, which pushed a storm surge of more than 20 feet into the community.

Local children attend Steinhatchee School, a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade public school in the village.