Gatornationals

Gainesville Raceway is a quarter-mile dragstrip just outside Gainesville, Florida. It opened in 1969 and is most famous for hosting the NHRA's prestigious Gatornationals event since 1970. Kenny Bernstein became the first drag racer to break the 300 mile-per-hour barrier at the track on March 20, 1992, during qualifying for that year's Gatornationals.

Fairbanks is an unincorporated community in Alachua County, Florida, United States. It is located along Florida State Road 24 between Gainesville and Waldo.

Gainesville Regional Airport (IATA: GNV, ICAO: KGNV, FAA LID: GNV) is a public airport three miles northeast of Gainesville, in Alachua County, Florida, United States. It is owned by Gainesville-Alachua Co. Auth. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a primary commercial service airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year).Gainesville Regional Airport had 177,282 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2011 and 159,499 enplanements in 2010. They also had 217,355 passenger boardings (enplanements) in 2015, more than 2% higher than 2014.Gainesville Regional Airport had 558,246 passengers in 2019.The airport annually hosts the Gator Fly In at the general aviation facilities. The event includes military aircraft displays, a classic car show, food trucks, live music, and aircraft rides aboard a Ford Tri-motor, a Cessna 172, and on helicopters.

Alachua Army Airfield, was a World War II United States Army Air Force airfield, located 4.2 miles (6.8 km) northeast of Gainesville, Florida.

Paradise was an unincorporated community in Alachua County, Florida, United States. It has been annexed into the city of Gainesville, and is located approximately where Alachua County Road 232 (N.W. 39th Avenue) crosses U.S. Route 441.The area around Paradise was settled in the 1830s. A station was built on the recently completed Savannah, Florida and Western Railway line between High Springs and Gainesville in 1885, and named Paradise after one of the farm fields in the area. By 1888 the community included some twenty houses, the railroad station and a school. A post office was established in 1885, and closed in 1908. Part of the area of Paradise was annexed into Gainesville in 1961. The remainder of Paradise was annexed into Gainesville in 1992.

Satchel's Pizza is a restaurant in Gainesville, Florida. It was opened on March 7, 2003 by Satchel Raye.Satchel's has become very well known in Gainesville, and can have wait times of over an hour on the weekends. It is common for Gainesville residents to see bumper stickers from Satchel's when driving around town.

The University Press of Florida (UPF) is the scholarly publishing arm of the State University System of Florida, representing Florida's twelve state universities. It is located in Gainesville near the University of Florida, one of the state's major research institutions. It is overseen by the Florida Board of Governors and publishes works from and about the state. Its predecessor was the University of Florida Press.

Gordon is a community in northern Alachua County, Florida. Garth Wilkinson "Wilkie" James established a cotton plantation in Gordon after the Civil War. James was a younger brother of Henry James and William James, and an abolitionist. He served as an officer with the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment in the Civil War and was severely wounded at the Battle of Fort Wagner. He returned to service with the 54th before the end of the war, when the regiment was in Florida. After the Civil War, John Murray Forbes, a staunch abolitionist and a friend of Wilkie James' father, Henry James Sr., advocated the development of cotton farming in the South using the labor of freedmen. With funds from Forbes and from his father, James began buying largely undeveloped land in Gordon in February 1866. He eventually spent $40,000 for about 3,000 acres (12 km2) of land, which was then cleared and planted in cotton. James' aunt, Catherine James Temple, also invested in the plantation, but most of the funds came from Henry James Sr., eventually taking a large part of his wealth.James hoped that the plantation would help bring equality and education to the freedmen, writing that "the freed negro under decent and just treatment can be worked to profit by employer and employee". The plantation included a school serving white and black students. A post office was opened in 1866, with James serving as postmaster, and closed in 1869.Like thousands of other northerners who bought up cheap land in the South and tried to create new plantations employing freedmen, Wilkie James had no experience farming. In the Autumn of 1867 Wilkie returned to his parents' home suffering from malaria. The cotton crop had done very poorly that year, due to incessant rains and catterpillars [sic]. The price of cotton had greatly fallen, from $1.00 per pound at the end of the Civil War to 14 cents a pound in 1867. Neighboring whites were hostile to James's treatment of blacks as equals, and night riders harassed the black workers on the plantation. The cotton crop failed again in 1868 and 1869. James was able to return Forbe's investment within a couple of years. Wilkie was also able to repay his aunt Kate, but was unable to return his father's investment. Wilkie was hospitalized for his malaria in the summer of 1869. He then returned to Florida to sell off what he could of the failed plantation. James left the state in 1871.By the 1880s, Gordon was described as a fairly prosperous farming community. Monteocha Park is a county park located in Gordon (Monteocha is another community adjacent to Gordon).

Lubee Bat Conservancy is a nonprofit organization in Gainesville, Florida. The organization was founded in 1989 by Luis F. Bacardi as a center for the research, conservation, and breeding of endangered animals; it later narrowed its focus solely to bats, particularly megabats.Lubee Bat Conservancy is an Association of Zoos and Aquariums-certified institution.

The Lake Pithlachocco Canoe Site (also known as Newnan's Lake Canoe Site) is a historic site which is east of Gainesville, Florida. It is located on the northeast shore of Newnans Lake, off State Road 26. On March 27, 2001, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The site is within the territory of the Newnans Lake Conservation Area.A drought in the first half of 2000 significantly lowered the water level of Newnans Lake, exposing a large number of dugout canoes and plank-built skiffs. Surveys eventually identified the remains of more than 100 dugout canoes on the exposed lake bottom. Most of the canoes were found along the northeast shore of the lake, but a few, fragmentary canoes, were identified along the southwestern shore. Additional canoes were discovered under canoes that were excavated for study. The Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research initially excavated 53 of the canoes for further study in June and July 2000. Low water in May 2001 revealed another two canoes that were added to the study. Each canoe was measured and photographed, and samples were taken to be submitted for radiocarbon dating and for identification of the species of trees from which the canoes were formed.All of the canoes had been crafted using fire to hollow out logs. Most of the canoes dated from the Archaic period (more than 2,300 years ago). Thirteen canoes were more recent, with radiocarbon dates ranging from 500 Before Present (BP) to 1300 BP. Samples from 41 canoes yielded radiocarbon dates from 5000 to 2300 BP, corresponding to the Middle Archaic and early Late Archaic periods. Most of the Archaic period canoes were fragmentary; only five canoes were judged to be at least 75% intact, and seven were less than 50% intact. The canoe ends tended to be better preserved, which was attributed to the wood being thicker there, with more of the heartwood present. The wood in all of the canoes was badly deteriorated, and had become soft and spongy. None of the canoes were deemed suitable for removal and preservation. Wheeler et al. judged the locations of the canoes to have been random, likely caused by natural forces such as prevailing winds.All of the canoes were made from logs hollowed by fire. Some of the canoes also showed evidence of fire being used to form the sides and ends of the canoes. While no tool marks were found on the canoes, the indigenous peoples of Florida are known at the time of first European contact to have used fire and scraping tools to shape canoes. Wheeler et al. judged most of the Archaic period canoes to be of Type 2 in the classification developed by Newsom and Purdy. Nineteen of the canoes, all dated to between 2310 BP and 4160 BP, had one or more thwarts, a ridge of wood transversing the interior. The purpose of the thwarts is unclear. All of the Archaic period canoes had been made from conifers. Most had been fashioned from yellow pines. One canoe had been made from a Bald cypress log.The Archaic period canoes found in Newnans Lake could not be distinguished from canoes of the Post-Archaic period (after 1000 B.C.) that have been found in Florida. Similar canoes of the Archaic period have been found elsewhere in Florida, indicating that a peninsula-wide tradition of canoe manufacture had existed since 5000 BP. Archaic period canoes are rare in the eastern United States outside of Florida. Sea levels rose rapidly around 7,000 years ago, raising the water table in the Florida peninsula and creating new wetland habitats. The wide-spread use of canoes in Florida is likely related to the development of new cultures that exploited those wetlands.

Flora was a community just northeast of the city of Gainesville, in Alachua County, in the late 19th century. A former colonel in the Union Army, Louis A. Barnes, who had served as sheriff and tax collector for the county, and registrar for the U.S Land Office, laid out a 2,000-acre (810 ha) subdivision between the Florida Transit and Peninsular Railroad and the Live Oak, Tampa and Charlotte Harbor Railroad north of the Gainesville city limits. In 1883, five-acre (2.0 ha) lots were being sold for fruit and vegetable farming. A post office was opened in 1895 and closed in 1896. The community was annexed into the city of Gainesville, beginning in 1905.

Morningside Nature Center is a 416-acre nature park located in Gainesville, Alachua County in the U.S. state of Florida and overseen by the City of Gainesville. It features a living history farm meant to simulate a North Florida family homestead from the mid to late 1800s. The farm includes an original Florida Cracker cabin built by Irish immigrants around 1840, which was moved to Morningside in 1976. The farm also features a one-room schoolhouse, along with newer farm buildings constructed as authentically as possible and a cash crop field that grows period-appropriate crops like corn, sugarcane, and cotton. The livestock on the farm are heritage breed and period appropriate to the time period. Visitors can view a Jersey cow, Ossabaw Island hogs, Dorking roosters and hens, and Gulf Coast sheep. On the first Saturday of every month September-May, volunteers dress in period attire and teach visitors about rural life in historical Alachua County. The farm is open year-round Monday-Saturday 9am-4:30pm, but it is closed on Sundays. Every Wednesday afternoon from 3-4pm September through May, visitors can visit the farm to participate in the Barnyard Buddies program to feed the animals hay and vegetables provided by park staff. This program is free of charge, but donations of carrots, squash, apples, sweet potatoes, and melons are accepted, however, please give these items to staff and not directly to the animals.The nature center and education building features live reptiles and amphibians, as well as taxidermy animals for guest viewing, a public restroom and trail maps. The first Friday of each month September through May, the Frogs and Friends program takes place from 2:00 to 3:00 pm in the nature center, free of charge. Behind the nature center, visitors can explore the Timucua village. Apart from the farm and nature center, Morningside Nature Center also has several miles of hiking trails that traverse through endangered sandhill ecosystems, pine flatwoods, bayhead swamps and cypress domes. In addition to 7 miles of hiking trails, Morningside Nature Center features a public picnic area with restrooms and water fountains, and a covered open-air pavilion which is used for environmental education programs for students on field trips and summer camps and for various other internal events. The pavilion is not available for public use. Prescribed fire is used to manage the park's sensitive ecosystem. Dogs are not allowed in the park.