May 1, 2026
Lake Summit, Winter Haven: The Lake at the Top of the Chain
Sixty-five acres at the top of the Winter Haven Southern Chain. At 131 feet of elevation, nothing drains into it — which is exactly why it runs clear.
On the Fourth of July, if you time it right, you can anchor a boat on Lake Summit and watch fireworks from the water. The show goes up from Legoland's water park on the lake's southeast shore. Sixty-five acres of quiet water separate the anchorage from the theme park.
The Southern Chain of Lakes is sixteen lakes connected by canals, draining south through Winter Haven toward the Peace River. Lake Eloise, at 1,174 acres, is the largest and sits at the bottom of the chain — the lake Cypress Gardens was built on, and the one Legoland inherited. Lake Summit sits at the head.
Summit's elevation is reported at 131 feet, the highest on the chain. Water from the rest of the system does not drain into it. It drains out, through a canal cutting south from Summit's lower end into Eloise.
That is why the water is clear. Most Central Florida lakes collect what comes down to them — agricultural runoff, storm drainage, nutrient loads from every piece of land above them in the watershed. There is nothing upstream of Summit to deliver any of it.
The lake covers about sixty-five acres, against Eloise's 1,174, and reaches a reported maximum of twenty-six feet, with an average around fifteen. It is a solution lake, a basin dissolved out of limestone over a long span of time.
The name matches the elevation. Summit sits at the top of the chain, and the word describes the position.
A canal skirts the edge of the Legoland property. The historic Cypress Gardens waterways — the channels Dick and Julie Pope cleared for rowboats in 1936 — connect through the system to Lake Eloise and up toward Summit. Legoland still runs boat rides through them. The plantings along those channels are more than eighty years old and are tended inside the theme park fence.
Summit sits one canal connection away from all of that. The canal runs south out of the lake at 131 feet and empties into Eloise.
Presented by
Own waterfront in Winter Haven?
Lake history is interesting. Shoreline conditions are practical. Horizon Marine builds docks, seawalls, and shoreline protection on Winter Haven's lakes — and gives a straight answer on what your property actually needs.
Lake Pierce, Lake Wales: The Five-Day Haul From Net to Railroad
Before it was a fish camp, the north shore of Lake Pierce was a commercial netting operation that hauled its catch out over log roads on a five-day round trip to the railroad — back when the lake was called Cat Fish Lake.
Read →
Edward Medard Reservoir, Plant City: The Mine That Became the Park
The 770-acre lake east of Brandon where a quarter-million people a year come to fish and camp was, in the 1960s, an open phosphate pit
Read →
Edward Medard Reservoir, Plant City: The Drawdown That Fed the Food Banks
When Hillsborough County's busiest reservoir was emptied in 2009 to rebuild its eroding bank, more than 1,300 of the stranded tilapia and catfish were filleted and sent to local food banks
Read →
Hardee Lakes, Bowling Green: The Lake That Stayed Closed Until the Fish Grew
Lake 3 at Hardee Lakes Park was stocked with sunshine bass in 2001 and then kept shut to anglers while they grew, and when it finally opened one Saturday morning in October 2005 all eight spots were already taken
Read →
Building on Lake Summit or another Winter Haven lake?
Free waterfront assessment · License #SCC131154313