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Product Description
The shallow-bowl basin south of Gainesville called Paynes Prairie is known to most Florida travelers only as the vast, low, open area they see from their car speeding north or south on I-75. Paynes Prairie’s huge basin was formed when a number of sinkholes formed close to each other and eventually merged. Located south of Gainesville, the Prairie played an important role in much of the early settlement and development of north central Florida. Had the Prairie not been there, Florida’s history would have been very different. Generations of Indians—from Paleo-Indians to the Timucua and Seminoles—lived, hunted, won and lost wars, and died on Paynes Prairie. William Bartram, delighted and intrigued by the abundance of previously unrecorded animal and plant life, wrote of the tranquility and beauty of the area. Some of that beauty has been destroyed in the name of progress, as Paynes Prairie has been set upon by developers and those with plans to “improve” what nature made perfect. In this well-researched, detailed book, author Lars Andersen concludes that although the Prairie will never return to its unspoiled state, there is reason to hope that Floridians can undo some of the damage their predecessors left now that the Prairie is a nature sanctuary.
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