At  over 30,000 acres, Lake Apopka is the third-largest lake in Florida, behind Lakes Okeechobee and George. It was once the second-largest, but its northernmost part was drained for muck farms in the 1940s. Fertilizer and pesticide runoff from those farms resulted in massive fish and bird kills (one victim was the bass, for which Apopka was renowned by fishermen nationwide). Public outrage at this ecological catastrophe resulted in the acquisition and closing of the muck farms; a restoration of the lake, now underway, is having mixed results.

This panoramic view, with west to left and east to right, looks to the far shore of of the lake (center) ten miles to the north.