Loading map...

1952 Map of Lake Wales

Name: 1952 Topographic Map of Lake Wales
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1992
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1992

About this map

Iron Mountain rises as a prominent high point in this central Florida landscape, surveyed just as Lake Wales was undergoing mid-century expansion. The town is densely packed with civic infrastructure, from the High School and Roosevelt School to the Municipal Airport and the Radio Station (WIPC). A remarkable concentration of water bodies defines the region's character, including the sprawling Lake Pierce to the northeast and a chain of smaller lakes like Lake Serena, Lake Altamaha, and Lake Weaver that interlace with the residential and commercial districts.

Transportation corridors including the Seaboard Coast Line railroad and a network of canals like the Peace Creek Drainage Canal reveal the region's managed hydrology and its role in the citrus and industrial economy of the 1950s. Smaller settlements and named junctions like Waverly, Floritan, and Mountain Lake Station appear alongside local landmarks such as Refuge Church, providing a detailed view of Polk County's social and physical geography during this era of growth.