History’s
Mysteries
Lake Apopka
When the Orange Belt Railway arrived in 1886, the community
began to grow. Farmers built a train depot in 1893 and named the
stop “Winter Garden” in honor of the year-round growing
opportunities that existed here.
Fishing camps lined the shores of Lake Apopka between the years
1920-50, when the lake was known as “the large-mouth bass capital”.
Beginning in the 1960s, things took a downward turn. It began with
the pollution of Lake Apopka. Water quality damage became apparent from years of effluents dumped by sewage treatment and citrus
processing plants, as well as fertilizers and pesticides from vegetable
farming around the lake. High-nutrient effluents in the lake encouraged wide-spread algae blooms, blocking sunlight, choking productive submerged plants and causing a decline in game fish populations.
Unfortunately By 1970 Lake Apopka was no longer a fishing
destination.
AUGUST 2014
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WINTER GARDEN MAGAZINE
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