Alachua Sink, a name likely derived from the Potano word meaning “jug,” is the deepest of Paynes Prairie’s sinkholes and carries water into the Floridan aquifer at a rate of up to 6 million gallons per day. Sinkholes have repeatedly changed this landscape from dry to wet to dry, shaping human activity here for approximately 12,000 years. Near this site, Hacienda De La Chua, the largest cattle operation in Spanish Florida, operated in the late 1600s. William Bartram described Alachua Sink in 1774 during his time on the Great Savannah, when Seminoles occupied the prairie. During the 1870-80s, the flooded prairie made the sink a steamboat landing where cargo was transferred to the Florida Southern Railway, until Alachua Lake suddenly drained in 1892. The state purchased this area in 1970, and in 1971 it became the first State Preserve.
