Micanopy Native American Heritage Preserve

Centuries after the last residents left the village along it, Lake Tuscawilla is now an open prairie. But this village site is sacred ground.

Founded in 1821, the town of Micanopy is the oldest inland settlement in Florida, but this Alachua Tradition village site is centuries older. The purpose of this preserve is to protect its archeological footprint, including a burial mound.

Resources

North Florida Panhandle Explorers Guide book cover

Five Star Trails Gainesville Ocala book cover

Overview

Location: Micanopy
Length: 0.8 mile loop
Trailhead: 29.502589, -82.269589
Fees / Permits: free
Restroom: none
Land Manager: Town of Micanopy
Phone: 352-466-3121

If the parking area is chained, the preserve is closed. The parking area is shared with adjacent Tuscawilla Preserve.

This is not a place to walk in open sandals, given the large amounts of tread softly (Cnidoscolus stimulosus) in the footpath, painful to brush bare skin against.

Directions

From Interstate 75 exit 374, Micanopy, follow CR 234 east for 0.6 mile to NW Seminary Avenue. Turn right and drive 0.7 mile through this historic residential district to NE Cholokka Boulevard, which is flanked by the historic downtown. Turn right and continue along the road as it leaves town and continues 0.5 mile to the parking area on the left.

The parking area is also just 0.3 mile west of US 441 along SE Tuscawilla Rd.

Hike

When William Bartram came to the Great Alachua Savanna in the spring of 1774, the village that once occupied this bluff was one of the places he stopped to meet the indigenous people who lived along the prairies.

The understory of this 16 acre tract is very typical of North Florida uplands, with lots of pine straw and grapevines beneath a high canopy of live oaks and laurel oaks.

Micanopy Native American Preserve kiosk — Kiosk at Micanopy Native American Preserve

Start your walk at the main kiosk just past the parking area. An interpretive trail goes off to the right of the kiosk, where you’ll see a lot of beautiful blue spiderwort in bloom.

Markers along the loop correspond to an interpretive brochure which may be available at the kiosk or at Micanopy Town Hall. Blackberries bloom along the edges of the path, which winds its way through the uplands.

Passing marker 9, you come up to a trail intersection at a half mile. Stay on the main loop, as the other path is a connector to a neighborhood in Micanopy.

It follows an old road, perhaps the historic route of the first north-south road through Micanopy, to a kiosk and a pass-through to the neighborhood.

One lone cabbage palm stands under the higher canopy of trees. As the tree canopy becomes taller, spiderwort is throughout the understory. You can see a the fenced-off archaeological site through the trees.

The trail emerges at a pole barn and a barn-like building that says “Town of Micanopy Native American Heritage Preserve Museum”, but it was not open on our visit.

Burial mound at Micanopy Native American Preserve

Behind it, however, is a notable archaeological find, an Alachua Tradition burial mound. Surrounded by a fence, it has a sign explaining the significance of the site, which dates to the Mississippian period, AD 750-1565.

“Please show respect with a moment of silence,” the sign says. Nature need not be silent, however. The butterflies flutter across the blooms scattered upon the burial mound.

The loop trail ends after 0.8 mile at the entrance.