Editing High Springs, Florida (section)

==History==

The present-day area of High Springs was first settled on a permanent basis by English-speaking people during the late 1830s. One of the earliest settlements in the vicinity was at Crockett Springs, located about three miles east of present-day High Springs. Settlers who were living there during the 1840s included Fernando Underwood and Marshal Blanton.

A discernible town began to develop in the early 1880s after the Savannah, Florida & Western Railway was constructed and several phosphate mines were established. A railroad station and a post office called Santaffey were established in 1884. The post office was renamed Santa Fe a few months later, then Orion the next year, and in 1888 it became High Springs, and the town was officially incorporated in 1892.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://growth-management.alachua.fl.us/historic/historic_commission/historictowns/highspringshist.htm |title=History of High Springs |access-date=2007-07-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927014838/http://growth-management.alachua.fl.us/historic/historic_commission/historictowns/highspringshist.htm |archive-date=2007-09-27 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The town, now a city, had a population over 1,500 at the end of the 1890s and was the second largest by population in the county.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Historic Alachua County and old Gainesville : a tour guide to the past|last=Pickard|first=John B.|date=2001|publisher=Alachua Press|isbn=0967278864|location=Gainesville, FL|oclc=50765140}}</ref>

{{wide image|BusinessDistrictHighSpringsFL.jpg|550px|Business district in 1916|alt=}}