The Lakes
Lake by lake — the one thing about each lake that most people don't know.
Lake Alfred, Polk County: The Shoreline Where Florida Citrus Got Its Laboratory
In 1917, the state of Florida planted its first off-campus research center on the shore of this lake — and a century later, almost every commercial citrus tree in the state traces back to work done there
Jun 4, 2026
Crystal Lake, Winter Haven: The Lake the Name Hides
A 36-acre circular lake on the south side of Winter Haven shares its name with six other Crystal Lakes in Polk County — and the research turns up almost nothing about this particular one
Jun 2, 2026
Lake Ashton, Lake Wales: The Private Lake That Straddles Two Cities
The 369-acre private lake in Lake Wales sits at the center of a 55-and-older community that straddles two cities — and a few years back, a CNN crew came down to film it
May 30, 2026
Mud Lake, Polk City: The Lake the Record Doesn't Remember
The research on Mud Lake in Polk City doesn't surface a story — and the honest move is to say so rather than borrow one from the dozen other Mud Lakes in Florida
May 29, 2026
Rattlesnake Lake, Winter Haven: The $50,000 Name Change
A Winter Haven developer spent roughly $50,000 in legal fees to wipe the word "Rattlesnake" off the map and call the water Lake Ashton instead — and then started working on the actual Rattlesnake Lake next door
May 27, 2026
Lake Harris, Tavares: The Day the College Record Fell
In January 2022, two brothers fishing a college tournament on Lake Harris brought a five-bass limit to the scales that weighed more than any single-day catch in the history of the Bassmaster College Series
May 25, 2026
Dinner Lake, Winter Haven: The 20-Acre Lake That Anchored a 199-House Subdivision
A 20-acre private lake in Winter Haven became the centerpiece of a 199-house gated subdivision platted in three phases — and most of the lots never touched the water
May 25, 2026
Lake Down, Windermere: The One Public Door Into the Butler Chain
The only public boat ramp on the entire Butler Chain of Lakes sits on Lake Down — and it almost didn't stay there
May 24, 2026
Lake Apopka, Apopka: The Winter the Restoration Killed the Birds
In the winter of 1998–99, the project meant to save Lake Apopka killed 676 birds — pelicans, wood storks, herons — poisoned by pesticides still locked in the soil decades after the muck farms shut down
May 24, 2026
Lake Van, Auburndale: The Dredging Case That Took Eight Years to Settle
A lawsuit filed in 1998 over illegal dredging and filling around Lake Van took eight years to settle — a slow reckoning over earth moved on a small Auburndale lake
May 24, 2026
Lake Minneola, Clermont: The Lake That Florida Tested First
In 2020, the clearest lake in the Clermont Chain became Florida's first test site for an Israeli-designed algicide — a $1.7 million experiment to see whether something nobody had tried here could knock cyanobacteria out of a protected lake
May 22, 2026
Lake Clinch, Frostproof: The Thirty-Foot Serpent and the Town That Kept Seeing It
For more than a century, people on the Frostproof shore have been reporting a thirty-foot serpent in Lake Clinch — and the tradition is older than the town itself
May 21, 2026
Lake Silver, Winter Haven: When the Ferris Wheel Turned Above the Shore
For a few weeks each winter in the 1940s and '50s, a double Ferris wheel turned above the shoreline and the lake sat at the center of a national broadcast
May 20, 2026
Tiger Lake, Frostproof: The Small Polk Lake That Drains to Two Oceans
A 2,086-acre lake in southern Polk County quietly feeds the same water system that empties into Lake Okeechobee — and from there, to both coasts
May 19, 2026
Crooked Lake, Babson Park: The Lake That a Collapsing Ridge Carved
The shape that gave Crooked Lake its name isn't a quirk of mapping, it's the visible signature of multiple sinkholes that opened beneath the Lake Wales Ridge over the last 5,000 to 10,000 years
May 18, 2026
Lake Idylwild, Winter Haven: The Garden Attraction Time Forgot
Before the ranch houses and the police training center, a 1940s garden attraction called Idylwyld Gardens drew visitors to this round little lake on Winter Haven's northwest chain
May 18, 2026
Lake Hamilton, Polk County: The Island Village and the President Who Came to Fish
A Seminole chief's village on Bonar's Island, and a former president casting a line from the same shoreline seventy-some years later
May 17, 2026
Lake Hollingsworth, Lakeland: The Three-Mile Loop That Made a National List
A 354-acre lake in central Lakeland ended up on a national top-20 list of running routes — and the reasons it earned that spot are baked into the shoreline itself
May 16, 2026
Lake Morton, Lakeland: The Swans Came From the Queen
The swans gliding around a downtown Lakeland lake trace their lineage to a 1957 gift from Queen Elizabeth II — a transatlantic rescue of a flock the city had nearly lost
May 15, 2026
Lake Weohyakapka, Lake Wales: The 9,500-Year-Old Toolkit on the Lake Bottom
The largest cache of Paleoindian microlithic tools ever recovered in Florida came up out of the bottom of this shallow Polk County bass lake
May 10, 2026
Lake Parker, Lakeland: The Comeback in the Shadow of the Power Plant
The story of how Lakeland's largest lake — sitting in the shadow of a power plant for most of a century — became measurably cleaner water
May 8, 2026
Lake Hatchineha, Kenansville: The Big Lake You Could Almost Walk Across
A 6,665-acre lake that averages three feet deep tells you almost everything about how the Kissimmee Chain actually works
May 7, 2026
Lake Louisa, Clermont: The Mustang on the Bottom
In 2001, drought pulled the water down far enough to show the tail of a P-51 Mustang that had been resting on the bottom of Lake Louisa since November 1944
May 6, 2026
East Lake Tohopekaliga, St. Cloud: The Lake That Grew Florida's First Sugar Mill
Before St. Cloud was a town, the south shore of East Lake Tohopekaliga held the first sugar factory ever built in Florida
May 5, 2026
Lake Mirror, Lakeland: The Locked Door on the Promenade
A locked gate on Lakeland's most photographed promenade hides a chamber that locals have spent nearly a century inventing stories about — alligator dens, lion pits, and a secret tunnel under the lake to the Terrace Hotel
May 5, 2026
Lake Hartridge, Winter Haven: The Afternoon Two Planes Came Down
On a clear March afternoon in 2023, two small planes collided over Lake Hartridge and went into the water within sight of the runway they'd just left
May 4, 2026
Lake Chase, Windermere: The Small Link in a Chain That Drew Champions
A 144-acre lake most boaters pass through on their way somewhere else is one of the smallest links in a chain that drew Shaq, Tiger Woods, and Ken Griffey Jr. to the same shoreline
May 3, 2026
Scott Lake, Lakeland: The Day the Lake Drained Into the Ground
In June 2006, a sinkhole opened beneath Scott Lake and drained all 251 acres of it into the Floridan Aquifer — and then, slowly, the lake came back
May 2, 2026
Lake Cannon, Winter Haven: The Bloom That May Have Been a Florida First
In the spring of 2001, four people riding jet skis across Lake Cannon picked up rashes that may have made Florida history — and not the kind anyone wanted
May 1, 2026
Lake Summit — The Highest Lake You've Never Thought About
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.
May 1, 2026
Lake Gibson, Lakeland: The Bass Lake With a 7,000-Foot Runway
The 490-acre bass lake in North Lakeland is also a registered airfield with a 7,000-foot runway — and most people who drive past it every day have no idea
Apr 30, 2026
Lake Shipp: Doesn't Look Like Much — Until It Does
Shipp isn't going to impress you. It's not clear, not especially big, and it's busy. But Lake Shipp has a habit of getting real good, real fast — if you know what happens after a tournament.
Apr 28, 2026
Lake Hunter, Lakeland: The Afternoon the Gator Wouldn't Let Go
On a June afternoon in 2016, Lakeland police arrived at Lake Hunter to find a nine-foot alligator spinning in the shallows with a man's body still in its mouth
Apr 28, 2026
Lake Tohopekaliga, Kissimmee: The Lake That Rewrote the Rules of Restoration
In the 1980s, biologists tried something on Lake Toho that had never been attempted on a lake its size — scraping the muck off the bottom to bring it back
Apr 27, 2026
Lake Howard, Winter Haven: The Downtown Lake That Starts a River
The water lapping against the downtown seawall at Lake Howard is the start of a river that ends nearly 100 miles away on the Gulf Coast
Apr 26, 2026
Lake Tibet, Windermere: The Shoreline That Didn’t Become Houses
On Lake Tibet, one of the most coveted stretches of waterfront in Orange County nearly became a neighborhood — instead it became a preserve
Apr 25, 2026
Lake Dora, Mount Dora: The Postcard Lake That Once Topped the Chain for Toxic Algae
In 2001, the prettiest lake on the Harris Chain quietly held a title nobody wanted — Florida's most polluted water body
Apr 25, 2026
Lake Sears, Winter Haven: The Quiet End of the Northern Chain
Lake Sears feels quieter than the rest of Winter Haven’s chain because it sits at the edge of the canal-made world that turned separate lakes into one boating culture
Apr 25, 2026
Lake Eloise, Winter Haven: The Most Photographed Lake Nobody Remembers Naming
Dick Pope turned Lake Eloise into the most photographed lake in America
Apr 25, 2026
Lake Lulu, Winter Haven: The Park That Gave the Chain Away
Before Winter Haven had a public park on its chain of lakes, it had to build one — and the lake they chose was Lulu
Apr 25, 2026
Lake Beauclair, Tavares: The Lake That Carries a Founder's Borrowed Name
The man who founded Tavares gave Lake Beauclair its name — and he gave Tavares its name, too, and both names trace back to the same restless, self-invented life
Apr 25, 2026
What Lighter Log Lane Remembers: The Lost Longleaf Pines of Lake Arietta
The street name on your waterfront lot is older than anything built there. Here's what Lighter Log Lane actually remembers — and what happened to the forest that gave it its name.
Apr 19, 2026
Bill Dance Fished Your Lakes — The Bass History Behind Polk County's Waterfront
The chain of lakes outside your window has been on national television for over fifty years. Here's the history behind the water you're looking at every day.
Apr 19, 2026
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