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1894 Map of Arredondo

Name: 1894 Topographic Map of Arredondo
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1921
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1921

About this map

Gainesville serves as the focal point of this late 19th-century landscape, a period when the regional economy was defined by a dense network of railroads and the unpredictable nature of North Florida’s hydrology. The survey prominently features the massive basin of Payne Prairie or Alachua Lake, capturing a moment when this vast savannah was occasionally a navigable body of water. Nearby, the geologic curiosity of the Devils Mill Hopper and Warren Cave suggest the underlying karst topography that shapes the area's many sinks and ponds.

Industrial and agricultural transit is evident in the converging lines of the Savannah Florida and Western Rail Road and the Florida Central and Peninsular Rail Road. Smaller settlements like Arredondo, Kanapaha, and Micanopy are shown in their early configurations, connected by a web of rural roads and the Cedar Key Division tracks. From Sanchez Prairie in the north to Tascawilla Lake in the south, the map documents a transition from wild prairie and hammock land to established citrus and rail towns.