Hotels.—*Exchange hotel, by Messrs. Barnes & Shemwell; the Magnolia house; the Bevill house; charges, $2.50 per day.
Newspaper.—The New Era, (Democrat).
Two Livery Stables.
Churches.—Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian.
Gainesville (pop. 1500) is situated in one of the most fertile regions of Florida. It is on a portion of the old “Arredondo Grant,” which embraced the larger part of the rich Alachua plains, and has been called, not without reason, the garden of the State. The soil is a sandy loam, resting on limestone. The latter is friable, and easily eroded by water. The rains frequently thus undermine the soil, which suddenly gives way, forming so-called “sinks” and “pot holes,” common throughout Alachua and the neighboring counties. One of the largest is the *Devil’s Wash Pot, 200 feet in depth, into which three small streams plunge by a series of leaps. Payne’s Prairie, a rich, level tract, twelve miles in length, enclosing a pretty lake, commences three miles south of Gainesville.
The famous *Orange Grove commences about twelve miles south of Gainesville, and extends nearly around Orange Lake. It is probably the largest natural orange grove in the world, and in the spring when the trees are in blossom, perfumes the whole region.
The Natural Bridge over the Santa Fe river is most readily approached from Gainesville, from which it is about twenty-four miles distant, west of north. The road passes through Newnansville, (the Wilson House, widow Frier’s boarding house, both $2.25 per day,) a place of 200 inhabitants. Near this place is Warren’s Cave, a curiosity of local note. The Natural Bridge marks, in fact, the spot where the river enters an underground channel for three miles of its course. Close to the bridge are the Wellington Springs, a sulphurous source of considerable magnitude, but with no accommodations.
A mail stage with very limited provisions for passengers, leaves Gainesville for Micanopy, Ocala, and Tampa, three times a week. Travelers arriving at Gainesville, on their way to the upper St. John, will do well to hire a private conveyance and go by Payne’s prairie and the Orange Grove to Ocala (thirty-eight miles) and the Silver Spring whence they can take the boats on the Oklawaha. (See page 89.) This trip will show them the most fertile portion of central Florida.
Leaving Gainesville, the train passed over a high, rolling, limestone country, through open forests of pine, hickory, blackjack, and other hardwood trees. The first station, Archer, fifteen miles, (one hotel, $3.00 per day,) is in the midst of such scenery. About ten miles beyond it the surface descends, and cypress and hammock become more frequent.
The next station, Otter Creek, twenty-two miles, is on the western border of the dense Gulf hammock, the part of it which lies in this vicinity being styled the Devil’s hammock.