Physical Characteristics. Suwannee County is in north Florida. The Suwannee River forms its north (with Hamilton County),west (with Madison and Lafayette counties), and south (with Lafayette County) boundaries. The county is also bordered by Gilchrist and Columbia counties. The county has 689.67 square miles of land and 2.49 square miles of water for a total of 692.16 square miles. The average January temperature is 55.6 degrees fahrenheit, and the average August temperature is 81.1 degrees fahrenheit. The average annual rainfall is 49.60 inches.
History. Suwannee County was established from Columbia County in 1858 and named for the Suwannee River, immortalized by the first line of Stephen Foster's song "Old Folks at Home"--"Way Down Upon the Swanee River..." Considerable disagreement exists over the origin of the name. Two possibilities are: Cherokee Sawani, meaning "echo river," and corruption of Spanish San Juan.
