Gainsville

History of Elachee

Elachee’s Grassroots Origin

The name Ĕ-lă-chēe is from the Cherokee language and means New Green Earth.

Elachee’s Heritage: The Chicopee Woods
According to archaeological findings circa 3,000 B.C., Archaic Indians were the earliest human inhabitants in the area. Woodland and Mississippian tribes took their place, and by the 16th and 17th centuries the area became home to the Creek and Cherokee nations. During the late 1700s small frontier farms dotted the landscape. Because the Walnut Creek watershed’s geography was not ideal for farming, the area escaped the 1800's cotton cultivation phenomenon.
In 1927, Johnson & Johnson Company, under the leadership of Robert Wood Johnson, Jr., purchased the major part of the Walnut Creek watershed to build the Chicopee Mill and Chicopee Village – a move that protected the forest and its water source. The company reduced mill production in the 1970s about the time a municipal water supply was made available to the Gainesville area. Johnson & Johnson closed the Chicopee Mill water filter plant and donated nearly 3,000-acres of the watershed to the Gainesville Area Park Commission.

This land became Chicopee Woods Area Park. This 2,674-acre greenspace is restricted for recreation and nature preservation uses.

Chicopee Woods Area Park was divided into three parcels with a public golf course on its north side and an agricultural demonstration pavilion on the west. Over 1,400 acres in the center of the Park was set aside as the Chicopee Woods Nature Preserve – land that was then leased to Elachee.

Elachee also began constructing hiking trails that today span 12 miles throughout the Nature Preserve. Among the trails is the finest barrier-free trail for mobility/vision-impaired visitors in the region. Along with hosting numerous traveling environmental literacy exhibits that attracted thousands of annual visitors.

In 2000 the Nature Preserve was recognized by The National Audubon Society as an Important Bird Area (IBA), an area essential to nesting and migrating birds.

Elachee launched a “BioBlitz” plant and animal species inventory program – among them, 38 species of upper story trees, 18 species of mid-story trees, 44 species of shrubs, 25 species of vines and 197 herbaceous plants including many rare and endangered species. The Nature Preserve is also home to countless species of animals and many aquatic animals.
Leading the Way for Environmental Literacy