A Bit of History
1823 Vignoles Map of Florida
Alachua Sink in Red
Click to see larger map
There are some errors in Vignoles’ map which were noted by James Gadsden to The Secretary Of War in a letter dated September 29, 1823 in which he said:
Little confidence is to be placed on the accuracy of Vignole's map as to the Interior of the Country; the Sea Coast may be correct as he had resort to some of the best English & Spanish Charts-The interior of Florida has never been explored, that I can ascertain-Vignoles made but a short excursion into the Country West of St Augustine-He never was more than 20 miles South of Alachua-The position of Okahumky & other Indian villages as laid down by him is grossly erroneous-this error has been corrected in the map sent to you.[1]
One of the errors is that Vignoles located the Arrendondo grant considerably southward of its actual location with Vignoles showing the center being Wantons and Micanopy. The original grant documents stated the grant was “Four Leagues of Land to each Wind” from “the Sink”, the sink being Alachua Sink the north side of the Alachua Savana, some six miles north of Micanopy. This may have been because, as stated in his book, Vignoles did not visit or see the sink, and with all paths leading to Micanopy, one would think it was the center of the grant. The error would be replicated in maps as late as 1837. It would not be until the validity of the Arredondo Grant as confirmed in 1832 and subsequent survey of it in 1833 that correct center of the grant was confirmed.
Other errors existed, The East Florida Herald in a September of 1825 article reported on a meeting of the Florida Agricultural Society in which Horatio Dexter and William Simmons[2] presented a report of routes for a cross Florida canal. They reported:
These keys are laid down on Vignoles map in lat. 25 30. This map though exact in the delineation of the coast is very defective in every other particular, as there existed at the time it was drawn, but little accurate knowledge of the geography of the interior.
It would be over a hundred years later before construction of the Cross Florida Barge Canal would begin, and in the end was never completed.
Charles Blacker Vignoles
(1786-1858)
Struggling financially, Vignoles in 1823 returned to Britain when his grandfather died where he went on to became a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1829, the Royal Society in 1855, and president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1869.
[1] Souce:
#61, p754
[2] Horatio Dexter and Dr. William Simmons were well
acquainted. Dr. William Simmons would in 1823 help determine the location
for the state capital at Tallahassee, see Finding Tallahassee.
Updated: 08-06-2026