Alachua County ( ) is a
county
A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
in the
north central portion of the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
. As of the
2020 census, the population was 278,468.
The
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
is
Gainesville,
the home of the
University of Florida
The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...
.
History
Prehistory and early European settlements
The first people known to have entered the area of Alachua County were
Paleo-Indians
Paleo-Indians were the first peoples who entered and subsequently inhabited the Americas towards the end of the Late Pleistocene period. The prefix ''paleo-'' comes from . The term ''Paleo-Indians'' applies specifically to the lithic period in ...
, who left artifacts in the
Santa Fe River basin before 8000 BC. Artifacts from the
Archaic period (8000 - 2000 BC) have been found at several sites in Alachua County. Permanent settlements appeared in what is now Alachua County around 100 AD, as people of the wide-ranging
Deptford culture developed the local
Cades Pond culture. The Cades Pond culture gave way to the
Alachua culture around 600 AD.
The
Timucua
The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The va ...
-speaking
Potano tribe lived in the Alachua culture area in the 16th century, when the Spanish entered Florida. The Potano were incorporated by the colonists in the
Spanish mission system, but new infectious diseases, rebellion, and raids by tribes backed by the English led to severe population declines. What is now Alachua County had lost much of its indigenous population by the early 18th century.
In the 17th century,
Francisco Menéndez Márquez, Royal Treasurer for
Spanish Florida
Spanish Florida () was the first major European land-claim and attempted settlement-area in northern America during the European Age of Discovery. ''La Florida'' formed part of the Captaincy General of Cuba in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and th ...
, established the
La Chua ranch on the northern side of what is now known as
Payne's Prairie, on a bluff overlooking the Alachua Sink. ''Chua'' may have been the
Timucua language word for
sinkhole
A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water ...
. Lieutenant Diego Peña reported in 1716 that he passed by springs named Aquilachua, Usichua, Usiparachua, and Afanochua while traveling through what is now
Suwannee County. In the twentieth-century,
anthropologist
An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...
J. Clarence Simpson assumed the named springs were in fact
sinkholes
A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water ...
. The Spanish later called the interior of Florida west of the
St. Johns River
The St. Johns River () is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and is the most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders 12 counties. The drop in elevation from River s ...
''Tierras de la Chua'', which became "Alachua Country" in English.
Around 1740, a band of
Oconee people
Oconee was a tribal town of Mikasuki language, Hitchiti-speaking Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands during the 17th and 18th centuries.
First mentioned by the Spanish Florida, Spanish as part of the Apalachicola Province on the Chat ...
led by
Ahaya, who was called "Cowkeeper" by the English, settled on what is now Payne's Prairie.
Ahaya's band became known as the Alachua Seminole. In 1774, botanist
William Bartram visited Ahaya's town, ''Cuscowilla'', near what Bartram called the Alachua Savanna.
King Payne, who succeeded Ahaya as chief of the Alachua Seminole, established a new town known as Payne's Town.
In 1812, during the
Patriot War of East Florida, an attempt by American adventurers to seize Spanish Florida, a force of more than 100 volunteers from
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States
Georgia may also refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
led by Colonel
Daniel Newnan encountered a band of Alachua Seminole led by King Payne near
Newnans Lake. After several days of intermittent fighting, Colonel Newnan's force withdrew. King Payne was wounded in the fight and died two months later. The Alachua Seminole then left Payne's Town and moved farther west and south, but other bands of Seminole moved in. A second American expedition in 1813 of U. S. Army troops and militia from Tennessee, led by Lt. Colonel
Thomas Adams Smith, found some Seminoles, killing about 20, and burned every Seminole village they could find in the area.
In 1814, a group of more than 100 American settlers moved to a point believed to be near the abandoned Payne's Town (near present-day
Micanopy) and declared the establishment of the
District of Elotchaway of the Republic of East Florida. The settlement collapsed a few months later after its leader, Colonel Buckner Harris, was killed by Seminole. The remaining settlers returned to Georgia.
Early American settlements
In 1817, F. M. Arredondo received the 20-mile square Arredondo Grant in the southern part of what is Alachua County. By the time Florida was formally transferred from Spain to the United States, people from the United States and from Europe were settling in the area. Wanton's Store, near the site of the abandoned King Payne's Town, attracted settlers, primarily from Europe, who founded
Micanopy. The 1823
Treaty of Moultrie Creek required the Seminole to move a reservation south of what is now
Ocala, and the flow of settlers into the area increased. Many settlers occupied former Seminole towns, such as
Hogtown.
Alachua County was created by the Florida territorial legislature in 1824. The new county stretched from the border with Georgia, south to
Charlotte Harbor. The original
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
was Wanton's (per the store, as the name Micanopy had not been adopted). In 1828, the county seat was moved to
Newnansville, near the current site of the city of
Alachua.
[
As the area's population increased, Alachua County's size was reduced to organize new counties. In 1832, the county's northern part, including Newnansville, was separated to create Columbia County, forcing the county seat to move to various temporary locations, then to Spring Grove, from 1836 to 1839.
In 1834, Hillsborough County was created, which included the area around ]Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater i ...
down to Charlotte Harbor. In 1839, that part of Columbia County south of the Santa Fe River was returned to Alachua County, and Newnansville was restored as the county seat. Hernando County was created in 1843 from that part of Alachua County south of the Withlacoochee River; Marion County was created in 1844; and Levy County was created in 1846 from that part of Alachua County west of the Suwannee River
The Suwannee River (also spelled Suwanee River or Swanee River) is a river that runs through south Georgia southward into Florida in the Southern United States. It is a wild blackwater river, about long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrog ...
. It would be another 80 years before Alachua County was again reduced in size.[
In 1853, the residents of Alachua County realized that the route of the planned Florida Railroad connecting Fernandina to Cedar Key would bypass Newnansville. A general meeting at Boulware Springs was called to consider moving the county seat to a new town on the expected route of the railroad. The motion to move the county seat was hotly contested by the residents of Newnansville, but Tillman Ingram, a plantation owner in Hogtown who owned a sawmill there, offered to build a courthouse in the new town. The offer was for such as favorable price that the move was approved. At tha time, the name "Gainesville" was chosen for the new town. The county seat was moved to Gainesville in late 1856, upon completion of the new courthouse.]
Lynchings and disenfranchisement
During the post-Reconstruction period, White Democrats regained control of the state legislature and worked to restore White supremacy. Violence against Blacks, including lynchings, rose in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as Whites imposed Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation, " Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African American. The last of the ...
and discriminatory laws, disenfranchising most blacks, which forced them out of the political system. Alachua County was the site of 21 documented lynchings between 1891 and 1926.[Nicole Dan, "Newberry Lynchings: Should They Be Memorialized?"](_blank)
WUFT-TV, December 6, 2017; accessed March 20, 2018 The first three documented lynchings, in Gainesville in 1891, involved two Black men and a White man, who were associated with the notorious Harmon Murray. Ten lynchings took place in Newberry, six of them in a mass lynching there in 1916. These lynchings were conducted outside the justice system, by mobs or small groups working alone. Nineteen of the victims were Black; two were White. (A 2015 report by the Equal Justice Initiative, based in Montgomery, Alabama, had identified 18 lynchings. The Historical Commission documented three more, including two white men.)
In September 2017, the county commission approved plans to place markers with the names of the victims in the county. (See linked article for names of these individuals.) They are working with the Historical Commission and cities to discuss how best to achieve this. A state historical marker on the Newberry Lynchings was dedicated in 2019.
Contemporary history
On February 15, 2023, the board of county commissioners for Alachua County voted to support the proposed amendment to the Florida state constitution that is entitled, Florida Right To Clean And Healthy Waters, making Alachua the first county in the state to lend its support for adoption of the proposed amendment. The proposed amendment is the subject of a statewide, nonpartisan campaign to place adoption of it before all Florida voters on the 2024 ballot. The adoption was signed into effect by its chair, Anna Prizzia, after a unanimous vote by the board.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (9.7%) is water.
Adjacent counties
* Bradford County - north
* Union County - north
* Clay County, Florida - northeast
* Putnam County - east
* Marion County - southeast
* Levy County - southwest
* Gilchrist County - west
* Columbia County - northwest
Demographics
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 278,468 people, 101,979 households, and 50,803 families residing in the county.
As of the 2010 United States census, there were 247,336 people, 100,516 households, and 53,500 families residing in the county. There were 112,766 housing units in the county, an occupancy rate of 89.1%; of the occupied units, 54,768 (54.5%) were owner-occupied and 45,748 (45.5%) were renter-occupied. The population density
Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was . The racial makeup of the county was 172,156 (69.9%) White, 50,282 (20.3%) Black or African American, 906 (0.3%) Native American, 13,235 (5.4%) Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 1.7% from other races, and 2.6% from two or more races. 20,752 (8.4%) of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
Of the 100,516 households, 22.0% included children under the age of 18, 36.4% included a married husband and wife couple, 4.0% had a male head of house with no wife present, 12.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 46.8% were non-families. 24.8% of all households included at least one child under the age of 18, and 19.6% included at least one member 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.32 and the average family size was 2.91.
The demographic spread showed 17.9% under the age of 18 and 10.8% who were 65 years of age or older; 48.4% of the population identified as male and 51.6% as female. The median age was 30.1 years.
The five year American Community Survey
The American Community Survey (ACS) is an annual demographics survey program conducted by the United States Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the United States census, decennial census ...
completed 2011 gave a median household income of $41,473 (inflation indexed to 2011 dollars) and a median family income of $63,435. Male full-time year round workers had a median income of $42,865, versus $36,351 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year.
In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the county was $25,172; 23.6% of the population was living below the poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
.
Languages
, 86.43% of the population spoke English as their primary language
A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongue'' refers ...
, while Spanish was spoken by 6.38%, 1.18% spoke Chinese, 0.57% were speakers of Korean, and 0.52% spoke French as their native language
A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period hypothesis, critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' ...
.
Education
The Alachua County School District and its 47 institutions serve the entire county. Alachua County is also home to the University of Florida
The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...
and Santa Fe College.
Library
The Alachua County Library District is an independent special taxing district and the sole provider of public library service to approximately 250,000 citizens of Alachua County. This includes all of the incorporated municipalities in the county. It maintains a library headquarters and four branches in Gainesville. These locations include the Millhopper Branch in northwest Gainesville, the Tower Road Branch in unincorporated Alachua county southwest of Gainesville, the Library Partnership Branch in northeast Gainesville, and the Cone Park Branch in east Gainesville. The district also operates branches in the Alachua County municipalities of Alachua, Archer, Hawthorne, High Springs, Micanopy, Newberry, and Waldo, as well as a branch at the Alachua County Jail. The district's two bookmobiles visit more than 25 locations in the county from two to five times a month.
Library history
The Alachua County Library District traces its origins to 1905, when the Twentieth Century Club in Gainesville started a subscription library. The Gainesville Public Library, a subscription library operated by the Library Association, opened in 1906. The Twentieth Century Club donated the books from its subscription library, and the new library also received books from the library of the East Florida Seminary, which had been absorbed by the newly founded University of Florida.
The Gainesville Public Library became a free library in 1918, supported by funds from city taxes from all residents, but it was available only to whites. The building was constructed with the aid of a Carnegie library grant. The library became a department of the Gainesville municipal government in 1949. It was not until 1953 and opening of the Carver Branch Library that the city's African Americans had access to a library, as public facilities were still segregated. The Carver Branch closed in 1969, after the main library's desegregation.
In 1958, the city of Gainesville and Alachua County agreed to jointly operate the library for the county. Branch libraries opened in High Springs, Hawthorne, and Micanopy the next year, and a bookmobile was put into service. Alachua County joined with Bradford County to operate the Santa Fe Regional Library. After Bradford County withdrew from the Regional Library, the Alachua County Library District was formally established in 1986. The Millhopper and Tower Road branches opened in 1992, and the branches in Alachua, Archer, Newberry, and Waldo were all opened by 1997. The Library Partnership Branch opened in 2009, and the Cone Park Branch in 2011. A new, permanent location for the Cone Park Branch Library opened near the Eastside Community Center in Gainesville on December 14, 2013.
Transportation
Major highways
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*
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Airports
* Gainesville Regional Airport- Gainesville
* Flying Ten Airport- Archer
* Oak Tree Landing Airport- High Springs
* Gleim Field Airport- Gainesville
Politics and government
Statewide elections
Like many other counties containing large state universities, Alachua County regularly supports the Democratic Party. It has voted for the Democratic candidate for president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
*'' Præsident ...
in the past eight elections. The county last supported a Republican presidential candidate in 1988, when it narrowly went for George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
.
Voter registration
As of May 31, 2024, the county had a Democratic Party plurality, with large Republican and independent minorities.
County offices
Alachua County is administered by the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners, a five-member legislative body. The Constitutional county-wide elected officials include the Clerk of the Court, the Supervisor of Elections, the Property Appraiser, the Sheriff, and the Tax Collector. The School Board and the Soil and Water Conservation District are also elected county-wide. Prior to 2024, county commissioners were elected at-large, but a ballot measure passed in 2022 created single-member district seats.
Law enforcement
The Alachua County Sheriff's Office is the chief law enforcement agency
A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for law enforcement within a specific jurisdiction through the employment and deployment of law enforcement officers and their resources. The most common type of law enforcement ...
for unincorporated areas of Alachua County. , the current sheriff is Chad D. Scott, a Democrat who won the General election in November 2024.
In June 2007, ten employees in the sheriff's office, including the jail's director, were either fired or resigned while being investigated.
the sheriff's office had at least one Lenco BearCat armored vehicle and two helicopters
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...
provided by the federal government under various programs. The office received criticism after the BearCat was used in a routine traffic stop.
On August 9, 2021, a prison inmate, Erica Thompson, gave birth while being held in Alachua County Jail. Her baby died. Despite the mother's screams, jail staff did not provide or call for medical assistance. An investigation held that law enforcement did not violate any law or policy.
Landfills
Alachua County is the site of five closed landfills—Southwest Landfill, Southeast Landfill, Northwest Landfill, Northeast Landfill, and Northeast Auxiliary Landfill. Since 1999, all solid waste from Alachua County has been hauled to the New River Solid Waste Facility in Raiford, in neighboring Union County.
Communities
Unincorporated communities
* Arredondo
* Bland
* Campville
* Cross Creek
* Earleton
* Evinston, partly in Marion County
* Fairbanks
* Flora
Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...
* Fort Clarke
* Gordon
* Grove Park
* Hague
* Haile
* Haile Plantation
* Island Grove
* Jonesville
* Lochloosa
* Melrose, partly in Bradford, Clay, and Putnam counties
* Monteocha
* Orange Heights
* Pinesville
* Rochelle
* Rutledge
* Tioga
* Traxler
* Wacahoota, partly in Levy and Marion counties
* Windsor
Historic communities
Alachua County had a number of populated places, usually with a post office, established in the 19th century or early 20th century, but which were abandoned or had a much reduced population by the middle of the 20th century. Notable historic communities include:
* Hogtown was originally a Seminole village. It was abandoned after Gainesville was founded. The site of the former community was later annexed into the city of Gainesville.
* Newnansville was the first county seat of Alachua County. It lost importance (and the county seat) after the railroads bypassed it, and it was abandoned by the early 20th century.
* Paradise
In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...
was a suburb of Gainesville that was eventually annexed into the city of Gainesville.
* Spring Grove was the second county seat of Alachua County, after Newnansville was included in the newly created Columbia County, until Newnansville was returned to Alachua County and restored as the county seat. It was abandoned sometime in the middle of the 19th century.
See also
* Alachua County Library District
* Florida State Parks in Alachua County
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Alachua County, Florida
*List of counties in Florida
There are 67 County (United States), counties in the U.S. state of Florida, which became a Territories of the United States, territory of the U.S. in 1821 with two counties complementing the provincial divisions retained as a Spanish territor ...
Notes
External links
Alachua County
{{authority control
1824 establishments in Florida Territory
Florida placenames of Native American origin
Charter counties in Florida
Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida
North Florida
Populated places established in 1824