Lake Jackson is a shallow,

prairie lake A prairie lake is a somewhat shallow lake that will empty naturally during dry seasons, allowing a variety of terrestrial plants to flourish upon the rich nutrients in the exposed lakebed, and the lakes eventually refill with water returning to t ...

on the north side of Leon County, Florida, United States, near

Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...

, with two major depressions or

sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...

s known as Porter Sink and Lime Sink. The lake is located in the

Red Hills Region The Red Hills or Tallahassee Hills is a region of gently rolling hills in the southeastern United States. It is a geomorphic region and an ecoregion. Location The Red Hills physiographic region of northern Florida was defined in 1914 as most o ...

, and has fluctuated from periods of being dry to a maximum elevation of above sea level. The lake is approximately long and its area is . There is no outflow from streams or runoff.

Geography

Interstate 10 runs across the southern tip of the lake. There is another Lake Jackson and Little Lake Jackson in Sebring, Florida, not related to the current article. The

Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park (8LE1) is one of the most important archaeological sites in Florida, the capital of chiefdom and ceremonial center of the Fort Walton Culture inhabited from 1050–1500. The complex originally includ ...

is located adjacent to the lake.

Geology

Karst

Drainage

Water drains from the lake into the Floridan Aquifer through the sinkholes. These are usually partially or completely plugged with sediments, but collapse when

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated ...

levels drop, allowing lake water to funnel into the aquifer, which can completely drain the lake. This has occurred on numerous occasions. Newspaper accounts report draining episodes in 1829, and again in 1840 and 1860. Sellards reports that the lake drained though a sinkhole in June 1907 and drained again during the summer of 1909. Lake Jackson drained again in November 1918, and yet again in January 1932 and October 1936. The lake drained in 1956-1957, and again in 1981-1982. More recently, Lake Jackson drained in 1999, May 2007, June 2012 and most recently in June 2021. During the 2007 drainage, the lake flowed down the Porter Sink, but pools of water still remained.

Ecology

Fauna

Large numbers of waterfowl

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

are found at Lake Jackson. These include great blue heron,

little blue heron The little blue heron (''Egretta caerulea'') is a small heron of the genus '' Egretta''. It is a small, darkly colored heron with a two-toned bill. Juveniles are entirely white, bearing resemblance to the snowy egret. During the breeding season ...

great egret The great egret (''Ardea alba''), also known as the common egret, large egret, or (in the Old World) great white egret or great white heron is a large, widely distributed egret. The four subspecies are found in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and ...

, snowy egret,

limpkin The limpkin (''Aramus guarauna''), also called carrao, courlan, and crying bird, is a large wading bird related to rails and cranes, and the only extant species in the family Aramidae. It is found mostly in wetlands in warm parts of the America ...

Moorhen Moorhens—sometimes called marsh hens—are medium-sized water birds that are members of the rail family (Rallidae). Most species are placed in the genus ''Gallinula'', Latin for "little hen". They are close relatives of coots. They are of ...

American coot The American coot (''Fulica americana''), also known as a mud hen or pouldeau, is a bird of the family Rallidae. Though commonly mistaken for ducks, American coots are only distantly related to ducks, belonging to a separate order. Unlike the w ...

wood stork The wood stork (''Mycteria americana'') is a large American wading bird in the family Ciconiidae (storks), the only member of the family to breed in North America. It was formerly called the "wood ibis", though it is not an ibis. It is found ...

osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

, bald eagle,

fish crow The fish crow (''Corvus ossifragus'') is a species of crow associated with wetland habitats in the eastern and southeastern United States. Taxonomy and etymology The fish crow was given its binomial name by the Scottish ornithologist Alexa ...

, and

least tern The least tern (''Sternula antillarum'') is a species of tern that breeds in North America and locally in northern South America. It is closely related to, and was formerly often considered conspecific with, the little tern of the Old World. Ot ...

. Common reptiles and amphibians include the

American alligator The American alligator (''Alligator mississippiensis''), sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator or common alligator, is a large crocodilian reptile native to the Southeastern United States. It is one of the two extant species in the gen ...

, Southern chorus frog,

Southern leopard frog ''Lithobates sphenocephalus'' or ''Rana sphenocephala'', commonly known as the southern leopard frog, is a medium-sized anuran in the family Ranidae (the true frogs). It is native to eastern North America from Kansas to New York to Florida. It is ...

, and the Florida softshell turtle. Among the mammals that inhabit the shoreline is the round-tailed muskrat.

Brown pelican The brown pelican (''Pelecanus occidentalis'') is a bird of the pelican family, Pelecanidae, one of three species found in the Americas and one of two that feed by diving into water. It is found on the Atlantic Coast from New Jersey to the mout ...

s, rare inland, have also been found on occasion.

Flora

Submerged vegetation is abundant throughout the lake and include blue

hyssop ''Hyssopus officinalis'' or hyssop is a shrub in the Lamiaceae or mint family native to Southern Europe, the Middle East, and the region surrounding the Caspian Sea. Due to its purported properties as an antiseptic, cough reliever, and expecto ...

, coontail, green fanwort, variable-leaf milfoil, and

bladderwort ''Utricularia'', commonly and collectively called the bladderworts, is a genus of carnivorous plants consisting of approximately 233 species (precise counts differ based on classification opinions; a 2001 publication lists 215 species).Salmon, Br ...

. Marsh plants include maidencane, pickerelweed, American lotus, and slender spikerush. Numerous wetland tree and woody plant species also inhabit the drier portions of the transitional marsh. These include sweetgum, a variety of

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

wax myrtle ''Myrica'' is a genus of about 35–50 species of small trees and shrubs in the family Myricaceae, order Fagales. The genus has a wide distribution, including Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America, and missing only from Australi ...

, the Carolina willow ( salix caroliniana), and

elderberry ''Sambucus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Adoxaceae. The various species are commonly called elder or elderberry. The genus was formerly placed in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, but was reclassified as Adoxaceae due to ge ...

. Exotic invasive species have also established themselves in some areas, including Chinese tallow and

hydrilla ''Hydrilla'' (waterthyme) is a genus of aquatic plant, usually treated as containing just one species, ''Hydrilla verticillata'', though some botanists divide it into several species. It is native to the cool and warm waters of the Old World in A ...

Preservation

Lake Jackson is part of the Lake Jackson Aquatic Preserve, along with Lake Carr and Mallard Pond. The preserve was established in 1973.

References

External links

1940 map of Lake Jackson & communityOchlockonee River Watershed and Lake Jackson Protection - Florida DEPLake Jackson EcopassageLake Jackson Mounds Archaeological ParkFriends of Lake JacksonVideo of Lake Jackson Drydown, December, 2002 (NWFWMD)
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Jackson Jackson may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Qu ...

Geography of Tallahassee, Florida