Lake Okeechobee

Where is Lake Okeechobee?

Countries on its shores: the United States.

Middle of the lake: 26.95° N, 80.80° W

The story behind it

The name Okeechobee comes from the Hitchiti language and means “big water”. And big it is: the lake covers about 1 900 km², although different sources give slightly different sizes. Yet it is very shallow: even the deepest spot is only about 4 metres deep. The Kissimmee River brings water from the north. Long ago, the water spilled over the southern shore and flowed slowly, like a wide sheet, into the swamps of the Everglades. Today most of it leaves through canals and rivers such as the Caloosahatchee and the St. Lucie. All around the lake runs a big wall of earth, the Herbert Hoover Dike. It was built after a strong hurricane in 1928 broke through the old dike and caused a terrible flood. On top of the dike there is a long hiking trail. Alligators swim in the lake, and egrets, ibises and wood storks hunt for fish along the shore.

Find it on the globe

Lake Okeechobee is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.