In the North Central/Suwannee River Region of Florida, Alachua County was formed in 1824 from Duval and Saint Johns Counties. In 1925, the western third of Alachua was split off to form Gilchrist County. Alachua's county seat, Gainesville, is on I-75 about 110 miles north of Tampa and 65 miles southwest of Jacksonville. Alachua is bordered by the counties of Columbia, Union, Bradford, Putnam, Marion, Levy and Gilchrist.