LAKE OKEECHOBEE IS SO BIG IT IS TOO LARGE TO SEE ACROSS.
Florida is home to more than 7,700 lakes. Despite its long coastline, Florida is also home to thousands of inland lakes, with the largest being Lake Okeechobee. Lake Okeechobee is the largest freshwater lake in Florida and the eighth largest in the United States and the second largest natural freshwater lake contained entirely within the contiguous 48 states, after Lake Michigan. Lake Okeechobee covers 730 square miles and is exceptionally shallow for a lake of its size, with an average depth of only 9 feet.
The Kissimmee River, located directly north of Lake Okeechobee, is the lake’s primary source. While people may have entered the Kissimmee River valley during the Archaic period (8000 to 1000 BCE), occupation of the area around Lake Okeechobee probably began about 1000 BCE, when the Belle Glade culture, which lasted until about 1700 CE, appeared. The population in the Belle Glade culture area was sparse, with many sites apparently occupied by one or two families, but there are many large mounds and other earthworks in the culture area. European goods have been found in many archaeological sites in the Belle Glade culture area, but little is known of what happened to the people. The area was unoccupied by the time Seminoles settled in southern Florida.
