When Lake Apopka Was the Tourist Attraction
Long before anyone planned a Central Florida vacation around Cinderella Castle, people traveled here to go fishing.
And Lake Apopka was a big deal.
The lake became famous for largemouth bass and developed a reputation as one of Florida’s great fishing destinations.
Tourists came specifically to fish it.
Fishing camps operated around the lake. Guides took visitors onto the water. Downtown businesses benefited from those visitors.
The photographic collection at Florida Memory even preserves scenes from places like Walker’s Fishing Camp on Lake Apopka around 1940 — complete with fishermen, old cars and the infrastructure of a tourism industry that has largely disappeared.
In 1927, the Edgewater Hotel opened in downtown Winter Garden and provided accommodations for the growing number of visitors coming through town.
Think about that for a second.
Today, somebody might visit Central Florida for Disney World and make a side trip to downtown Winter Garden.
A century ago, people were coming to Winter Garden itself for vacation.
Lake Apopka was the attraction.
And the old photographs are fantastic.
People proudly posed with enormous bass pulled from a lake that later generations would hear about primarily because of pollution.
Unfortunately, that distinction matters.
By the middle of the twentieth century, decades of agricultural runoff, wastewater and other environmental pressures were devastating Lake Apopka’s ecosystem. The lake’s famous fishing industry eventually collapsed.
The story of Lake Apopka’s decline and ongoing restoration is documented by organizations including the St. Johns River Water Management District and in historical material preserved by the State of Florida.
One of Winter Garden’s economic engines had essentially disappeared.
Eventually, another one would take a major hit too.
But before we get there, there’s another Winter Garden story that deserves considerably more attention than it usually gets.
