Apalachee Bay

Apalachee Bay forms a broad indentation where the Florida peninsula meets the Gulf coast. The Aucilla, Econfina, St. Marks and Ochlockonee rivers enter a shallow sea of oyster reefs, marsh islands and spring-fed channels. Low limestone lies close to the surface, producing a drowned karst shore without a continuous barrier beach. Marsh-edge middens and older settlement traces show that people used this coast well before written records.

The bay took its name from the Apalachee people, who lived between the Aucilla and Ochlockonee rivers until the early eighteenth century. Spanish ships were supplying their mission province through these waters by 1637. Canoes carried its maize, hides and other produce toward St. Augustine, while St. Marks and St. Marks de Apalache guarded the landing.

Shallow water made navigation cautious but offered shelter behind reefs and river mouths. The 1528 Narváez expedition built improvised boats near this coast and reached the open bay before turning west. Later Spanish, French and British rivalries followed the same low shore, where river routes met the Gulf.