1954 Polk County Commissioners Pictorial Map of Polk County, Florida

This is a c. 1954 Polk County Board of County Commissioners pictorial map of Polk County, Florida. Pictorial vignettes promote Polk County's charms, including its outdoor activities, agricultural prowess, and road network. People are illustrated waterskiing, fishing, hunting, golfing, and more. The famous Bok Tower appears just above Lake Wells, and Cypress Gardens is marked to the right of Winter Haven. Red dots mark 'fishing camps' established to help 'visiting anglers operate on a year-round basis'. Thick red lines mark Federal highways, while the thick blue lines mark paved state highways.

Imperial Polk County

Per a story published in the Lakeland Ledger on July 28, 2018, the phrase 'Imperial Polk County' began being used in 1916 as a way to promote the county's project to pave 217 miles of local roads. The phrase was meant to evoke that other great imperial city that it is said all roads lead to: Rome. The slogan first appeared in The Polk County Record on May 15, 1914, in a 'booster' edition of the paper as a headline that read 'Imperial Polk County - The Heart of Florida'. Apparently the newspaper even adopted the phrase for use on its letterhead through at least the 1930s. The Ledger's research indicates that the County Commission started using the phrase in the 1950s. Today, 'Imperial Polk County' isn't used very often. However, in 2000 when the County Commission tried to abandon the nickname, the county's population resisted, and it remains the county's unofficial nickname to this day.

Publication History and Census

This map was created for and published by the Polk County Board of County Commissioners c. 1954. We note an example in the collection of the Touchton Map Library at the Tampa Bay History Center.