Anhayca

Anhayca was a principal town of the Apalachee, whose farming communities occupied the country between the Aucilla and Ochlockonee rivers. Its houses stood among fields of maize, beans and squash in a region of lakes and wooded hills. The Apalachee belonged to a society of towns and earthen mound centres whose connections reached across the southeastern interior and the Gulf coast.

In 1539 Hernando de Soto's expedition seized Anhayca for its winter quarters. The inhabitants had left before the Spaniards arrived, and Apalachee warriors harassed the intruders throughout their stay. After the expedition departed in 1540, the Apalachee returned to the town. Nearly a century later, Apalachee leaders invited Franciscan friars to establish missions in their country. San Luis began near Anhayca in the 1630s before moving to the town of Talimali in 1656.

The later city of Tallahassee lies nearby.