Lake Okeechobee

[[]] Lake Okeechobee (pronounced /ˌoʊkɨˈtʃoʊbiː/) locally referred to as The Lake or The Big O, is a freshwater lake in the U.S. state of Florida. It is the second-largest freshwater lake wholly within the continental United States (after Lake Michigan) and the largest in the southern United States. Okeechobee covers 730 square miles (1,890 km²), approximately half the size of the state of Rhode Island, and is relatively shallow, with an average... more

[[]] Lake Okeechobee (pronounced /ˌoʊkɨˈtʃoʊbiː/) locally referred to as The Lake or The Big O, is a freshwater lake in the U.S. state of Florida. It is the second-largest freshwater lake wholly within the continental United States (after Lake Michigan) and the largest in the southern United States. Okeechobee covers 730 square miles (1,890 km²), approximately half the size of the state of Rhode Island, and is relatively shallow, with an average depth of only 9 feet (3 m). The lake is divided between Glades, Okeechobee, Martin, Palm Beach, and Hendry counties. Maps of Florida show that all five of these counties meet at a point near the center of the lake, making this point a tertiary quintipoint. 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. The name Okeechobee comes from the Hitchiti words oki (water) and chubi (big), and... less