Lake Okeechobee offers a remnant of the untamed natural beauty of Florida

View Larger Map

“Okeechobee” in the tongue of the native Indians means "big water" — a 730-square-mile freshwater lake that occupies much of the real estate of South Florida.

Lake Okeechobee is locally referred to as The Big O. It is the second-largest freshwater lake wholly within the continental United States, second only to Lake Michigan.

Okeechobee is thought to have been formed out of the ocean about 6,000 years ago when the waters receded. At its capacity, the lake holds 1 trillion gallons of water and is the headwaters of the Everglades.

References:
Luxe Meets the Lake in ‘Real’ Florida. NYTimes, 03/2009.
Lake Okeechobee, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.