The Bradford County Florida map reads most clearly when Starke is treated as the crossing point of two different travel directions. U.S. 301 links Lawtey and Starke on a north-south line, while State Road 100 carries an east-west corridor through the county seat. Hampton lies toward the southeast and Brooker toward the Alachua County side. Add Lake Sampson, Lake Rowell, Crosby Lake, and the Upper Santa Fe watershed to that road framework, and the county becomes a compact but varied landscape of small municipalities, lakes, wetlands, forest, and rural settlement.
Table of Contents
Download the Bradford County map
The button below opens the JPG file associated with the map on this page.
- Map file: Bradford County reference map
- File format: JPG
- Coverage: County boundary and selected place labels
Quick Facts
| State | Florida |
|---|---|
| County | Bradford County |
| County seat | Starke |
| 2025 population estimate | 28,307 |
| 2020 land area | 293.96 square miles |
| 2020 population density | 96.3 people per square mile |
| Municipalities | Starke, Lawtey, Hampton, Brooker |
| Key roads | U.S. 301, SR 100, SR 16, SR 18, SR 230 |
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates 28,307 residents as of July 1, 2025, essentially unchanged from the 28,303 counted in the 2020 Census. The county contains 293.96 square miles of land. Its small size can be misleading on a statewide map: most government and commercial activity concentrates around Starke, while the remainder includes smaller towns, rural homes, lakes, wetlands, pine forest, and agricultural land rather than one continuous built-up area.
What the Map Shows
Starke is the administrative anchor and the point where the county’s strongest road corridors meet. Lawtey lies north along U.S. 301 and helps orient the Baker County/Jacksonville direction. Hampton sits southeast of Starke, while Brooker marks the southwestern side toward Alachua County. Those places are better understood as endpoints of different local corridors than as a compact cluster surrounding one urban center.
West and southwest of Starke, Lake Sampson, Lake Rowell, and Crosby Lake add a second geographic layer. Suwannee River Water Management District material identifies the Santa Fe River as part of Bradford County’s southern boundary and connects portions of the county to the Lake Santa Fe/Santa Fe Swamp and Upper Santa Fe watershed. The southern edge is therefore not simply a political line; lakes, wetlands, surface drainage, and groundwater recharge link Bradford County to the Alachua County side.
County Layout and Location
Bradford County lies in inland Northeast Florida. Baker County is to the north, Clay County to the east, Putnam County to the southeast, Alachua County to the southwest, and Union County to the west. The western boundary reflects a major historical change: in 1921, Lake Butler and the western portion of Bradford County were separated to create Union County. That event explains why the present county is much smaller than the jurisdiction described in its nineteenth-century history.
Transportation is organized around U.S. 301 and SR 100. U.S. 301 passes through Lawtey and Starke as the principal north-south highway, while SR 100 crosses Starke and continues toward Union County/Lake Butler on the west and the Clay–Putnam side on the east. FDOT also identifies SR 16, SR 18, and SR 230 as important state-road links in the county. Because no Interstate crosses Bradford County itself, these U.S. and state highways carry much of the cross-county and neighboring-county movement.
Local Context
The county government traces Bradford County to New River County, created in 1858 from parts of Columbia and Alachua Counties and renamed in 1861. Lake Butler served as an early county seat, but Starke grew along the Fernandina-to-Cedar Key railroad corridor. A series of elections and legal disputes shifted the courthouse back and forth before Starke became the permanent county seat in 1887. That history gives geographic meaning to Starke’s present concentration of government and service functions.
The Upper Santa Fe Basin supplies another county-specific story. District planning documents discuss Lake Sampson, Lake Rowell, Crosby Lake, Santa Fe Swamp, and several groundwater-recharge features in Bradford County. Brooks Sink is identified as a large cover-collapse sink, illustrating the karst processes beneath the flat North Florida surface. Lakes and wetlands here are therefore not isolated scenic features; they form part of a linked surface-water and aquifer-recharge system feeding the wider Santa Fe basin.
Outside Starke and Lawtey, settlement becomes noticeably more dispersed. Brooker faces toward the Alachua County side, Hampton toward the Clay–Putnam side, and the lake district west of Starke has a different road pattern from the U.S. 301 corridor. On the map, the open spaces between labels correspond to actual rural land uses—forest, farms, wetlands, and low-density residential areas—not missing urban detail.
Ways to Use This Map
A practical reading sequence starts at Starke, draws U.S. 301 north-south, and then crosses it with SR 100. Place Lawtey, Hampton, and Brooker on their respective sides of that framework, then add the lake district and Santa Fe watershed to the southwest. This separates government, transportation, municipal geography, and physical geography without repeating the same place list in every section.
- Road orientation: distinguish the Lawtey–Starke U.S. 301 corridor from the east-west SR 100 corridor.
- Municipal pattern: compare where Lawtey, Hampton, and Brooker sit relative to Starke and neighboring counties.
- Water geography: relate Lake Sampson, Lake Rowell, and Crosby Lake to the Upper Santa Fe watershed.
- Boundary history: use the 1921 creation of Union County to explain the modern western edge.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the county seat?
Starke is the county seat. Bradford County’s official site identifies Starke as the governmental center, and county offices and courthouse functions are concentrated there. It is also the most useful map anchor because the main U.S. and state-road corridors converge in the Starke area.
Why does Union County matter historically?
Union County was created in 1921 from the western part of Bradford County, including Lake Butler. Earlier county-seat disputes involved both Lake Butler and Starke, so the present western boundary represents a later administrative division rather than the county’s original extent.
Which river helps define the southwest?
The Santa Fe River forms part of Bradford County’s southern boundary and is especially important to the Alachua County side. Several Bradford County lakes and wetlands also belong to the Upper Santa Fe hydrologic system, so the river is best read together with the surrounding watershed rather than as an isolated line.
Sources
- Bradford County, Florida — About Us — county seat, municipalities, county formation, and Union County history
- U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts — Bradford County, Florida — 2025 population estimate and 2020 land area/density
- Florida Department of Transportation — Official Transportation Map — U.S. 301 and state-road context
- Suwannee River Water Management District — Upper Santa Fe watershed, Bradford County lakes, wetlands, and recharge features
- Florida State Parks — O’Leno State Park — regional Santa Fe River karst and underground-flow context
Related County Maps
- Baker County Florida map
- Union County Florida map
- Alachua County Florida map
- Putnam County Florida map
- Clay County Florida map
Green Map creates custom-edited map images using open geographic data sources such as geoBoundaries, Natural Earth, OpenStreetMap, and government open data.
These maps are edited visual materials, not raw data files, and are provided for education, documents, presentations, and graphic reference.
