Dixie County is located in northwestern Florida along the Gulf of Mexico. Dixie County contains 704 square miles of land area and 160 square miles of water surface. Dixie County was carved out of the southern portion of Lafayette County in 1921. The county seat is Cross City.

The City of Hawkinsville was a paddle steamer built in Georgia in 1886. By 1900, it was delivering lumber and cargo along the Suwannee River in Dixie County. A few years later, the paddle boat was made obsolete by the arrival of railroads in the area. By 1922, the steamer was running at a loss so the captain of the boat scuttled it, sinking the old beastie in the middle of the Suwannee River just downstream of the railroad trestle at Old Town in 1922. In 1992, the site of the shipwreck was opened to the public as the third Florida Underwater Archaeological Preserve. In 2001, the shipwreck was added to the National Register of Historic Places.