2015 Map of West of Big Lake

About this map

Water management infrastructure and utility access define this corner of Palm Beach County, where the Hillsboro Canal cuts a sharp diagonal path across the landscape. This man-made waterway, critical to the reclamation and drainage efforts that transformed South Florida, is paralleled by Browns Farm Rd, providing a lonely transit corridor through the surrounding wetlands. In the northwestern portion of the sheet, the L-7 Canal provides further evidence of the region's highly engineered hydrology. The stark, geometric layout of these features reflects the mid-century evolution of the Everglades into a managed system of levees and channels designed to control water flow and support agricultural expansion in the interior of the state.