San Buenaventura de Potano

San Buenaventura de Potano was a Spanish mission near Orange Lake in southern Alachua County or northern Marion County, Florida, located on the site where the town of Potano had been located when it was visited by Hernando de Soto in 1539. The Richardson/UF Village Site (8AL100), in southern Alachua County, has been proposed as the location of the town and mission.

Potano was the namesake town of the Potano tribe or chiefdom, part of the Timucua people. In the middle of the 16th century the town of Potano was located west of Orange Lake, near Evinston. The Hernando de Soto expedition visited Potano in 1539. In 1564, nand again in 1565, the Utina chiefdom on the St. Johns River and the French (from Fort Caroline) raided the town of Potano. Many Potanos were killed, and many others captured. In 1584, in retaliation for raids by the Potano against the Spanish, the principal town of Potano was attacked and burned by Spanish soldiers. The town of Potano was then moved to a site northwest of present-day Gainesville.

A place or mission called Apalo or Apula was associated with the original site of Potano. (Apula is Timucuan for "fort" or "stockade".) De Soto's expedition passed a town called Apalu or Hapaluya, but it appears to have been in what was later called Yustaga, west of the Suwannee River, and not associated with Potano. A town named Apalo is shown on the Jacques le Moyne map, located to the northeast of Potano. In 1597 or later, Fray Baltasár Lopéz established a visita, a mission without a resident priest, called Apalo. Milanich states that the visita may have been at the Richardson site. In 1616 Father Luís Jerónimo de Oré visited a mission called Apalo, two and one-half days walk from San Antonio de Ancape on the St Johns River.

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