Lake Okeechobee

Lake Okeechobee is Florida's largest lake and the largest freshwater lake entirely within the continental US outside the Great Lakes — 730 square miles, so shallow it averages under 9 feet deep. The Herbert Hoover Dike, a 143-mile earthen levee the Army Corps of Engineers built between 1932 and 1938 after hurricane storm surges killed more than 2,500 people in 1926 and 1928, rings the entire lake and finished an 18-year, $1.5 billion rehabilitation in January 2023. Clewiston, on the southwest shore, calls itself America's Sweetest Town for the U.S. Sugar refinery anchoring its economy, and carries most of the lake's commercial base: Roland Martin Marina and its Scotty's Tiki Bar, Cafe Tropical's Cuban food downtown, and the historic 1938 Clewiston Inn. Okeechobee, on the north shore, adds Lightsey's Seafood Restaurant where the Kissimmee River meets the lake. Atop the dike, the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail loops all 110 miles around the shoreline for cyclists, hikers, and birdwatchers. The lake is widely marketed in bass-fishing media as the sport's capital, and hosts a packed tournament calendar including Bassmaster Elite Series stops.