Physical Characteristics. Marion County is south of Gainesville and is bordered by Citrus, Sumter, Putnam, Alachua, and Levy counties. The county has 1609.68 square miles of land and 52.50 square miles of water for a total of 1662.68 miles. The average January temperature is 58.6 degrees fahrenheit, and the average august temperature is 80.9 degrees fahrenheit. The average annual rainfall is 51.94 inches.
History. Marion county was established from portions of Alachua and Mosquito counties in 1844 and named for General Francis Marion, "Swamp Fox" of the Revolutionary War.
