La Chua ranch

Before 1637, Francisco Menéndez Márquez, the royal treasurer of Spanish Florida, established the La Chua ranch in the vicinity of Paynes Prairie. It spanned 87 square miles (230 km2) and would be, by the late 17th-century, the largest cattle ranch in the colony. It was raided several times by various Native groups and by French buccaneers. It became abandoned by 1706.

Cuscowilla and Paynes Town

The prairie became the stronghold of the Alachua band of the Seminole tribe under chief Ahaya the Cowkeeper by the mid-1700s. The Seminole town of Cuscowilla was located near modern Micanopy, Florida. In 1774 the area, then known as Alachua Savannah, was visited by William Bartram who noted in his book, “Bartram’s Travels”, that it was used as grazing ground by the local Seminole.

By the 1790s, Cuscowilla had been relocated to a site east of Lake Wauburg and become known as Paynes Town. The town and the surrounding prairie was named for the Cowkeeper’s eldest surviving son, Payne. Paynes Town was destroyed by Tennessee Volunteers in 1813. Fort Tarver and Ford Crane were both located in Paynes Prairie during the Second Seminole War.

After Indian Removal, the area became inhabited by European Americans, their slaves, and very small number of free people of color. A railroad line was built along the northern edge of the prairie in the late 1800s.

In 1868, heavy rains filled the basin, but quickly drained away. About 1871, Alachua Sink was temporarily blocked and the basin became full for several years. From 1871 to 1891 Alachua Lake was receiving enough water that steamboats were able to be used on it. A line ran from Chacala Pond to Sweetwater Branch. About 1889, the water level of Alachua Lake began to slowly drop. During the winter of 1890/1891 the lake was 58 feet deep. Then in late July and August 1891, the water levels of Alachua Lake suddenly dropped. Its banks were littered with dead fish and dead alligators. At one point, the water levels dropped eight feet in the span of ten days and left the lake with only its two main basins with any water.[8] This draining event marooned one of the steamers then plying the lake, and similar events had occurred in 1823 and 1870.

Camp Ranch and the canal system

By the 1920s, most of the prairie had been purchased by Camp Ranch, Inc. In 1927, Camp Ranch, Inc. built a canal system to divert water coming into Alachua Lake in the Paynes Prairie Basin from Newnans Lake to Orange Lake through the River Styx. The diversion of the water meant a loss of 50% of the surface water supply to Paynes Prairie. That same year, the state of Florida built U.S. 441 through the basin. In 1937, Camp Ranch began construction on the Sweetwater Branch Canal. It was designed to channelize the flow from Sweetwater Branch directly into Alachua sink instead of allowing it to settle in Lake Alachua. The subsequent urbanization of Gainesville increased the amount of stormwater directed into Sweetwater Branch and also pollutants. In 1964, the construction of I-75 through the western section of the prairie was completed.

Conservation and restoration

In 1970, the state of Florida acquired the land from Camp Ranch, Inc. It was designated a natural landmark in December 1974. In 1975, the Florida Park Service temporarily restored half of the historic rate of flow of water from Newnans Lake to Paynes Prairie. During the 1970s and 1980s, officials reintroduced several species to Paynes Prairie.

As of 2013, Paynes Prairie receives one-third of its water from Newnans Lake, one-third from all other sources, and one-third from direct rainfall. The removal of the canals that same year had restored 7.95 miles of dikes and canals. Due to occasional heavy rains the rate of water from Prairie Creek to the Prairie is eliminated entirely to prevent damage to U.S.

In the mids-2010s, the Sweetwater Wetlands Park, a 125-acre constructed enhancement wetland, was put in place on the northern section of Paynes Prairie. The project was designed to restore sheetflow to parts of the prairie obstructed by the Sweetwater Branch Canal and to also reduce the TMDL to acceptable levels that the Alachua Sink experiences. The Sweetwater Wetlands Park opened in May 2015.