Polk County is home to more than 550 lakes, making it one of the most lake-rich counties in all of Florida. The story of how these lakes were named is really the story of the people who shaped this land. The earliest known names came from the Red Stick Creek & Seminole tribes who used this region for hunting, giving us words like We-Oh-Ya-Kapka & See-Sa-Qua-Chita to describe the chain of lakes around present-day Winter Haven.

When the Armed Occupation Act of 1842 encouraged permanent settlement, pioneers moved onto the lakeshores & naturally named the water after their own families such as Boney, Hamilton, Hancock, & Hollingsworth, all names still on the map today! Government surveyors like Dr. John Westcott, who led crews through the area beginning in 1849, named dozens of lakes after friends, family, & fellow officers as they established the township & range lines that would define the Polk County. U.S. Army officers stationed at the chain of forts built across central Florida in 1850 lent their names to lakes like Arbuckle & Clinch, while early land promoters in the 1880s & again in the 1920s "discovered" Florida & named lakes as they marketed the region to northern buyers. Railroad builders, led by Henry Plant in 1883, left their mark on lakes like Haines, Henry, and Swoope, & the pioneer citrus growers who settled the high sandy ridgeline named the small irrigation lakes that dotted their groves after their own families.

For those of us who call Polk County home, these lakes are more than a landscape feature. They are a living record of every generation that has shaped this corner of Florida.