Lake Miccosukee is a large swampy

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 ...

in northern Jefferson County,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

, located east of the settlement of

Miccosukee The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida is a federally recognized Native American tribe in the U.S. state of Florida. They were part of the Seminole nation until the mid-20th century, when they organized as an independent tribe, receiving f ...

. A small portion of the lake, its northwest corner, is located in Leon County. The small town of

Miccosukee, Florida Miccosukee is a small unincorporated community in northeastern Leon County, Florida, United States. It is located at the junction of County Road 59 (Veterans Memorial Drive) and County Road 151 (Moccasin Gap Road). Miccosukee was a major center ...

is located on the north eastern shore of the lake in Leon County. The lake is named after the

Indians.

Characteristics

Lake Miccosukee forms the northern border between Jefferson and

Leon Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again f ...

Counties. The lake is controlled by an active

sink hole 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 ...

located in the northern end and water represents the actual surface of the Floridan Aquifer as the caverns beneath the sink reach into the aquifer.

History

Early history

Lake Miccosukee was a natural

prior to the settlement by Miccosukee Indians the original indigenous inhabitants of Florida. Thousands of years ago, the lake connected directly with the

St. Marks River The St. Marks River is a river in the Big Bend region of Florida. It has been classified by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection as an Outstanding Florida Water, and is the easternmost river within the Northwest Florida Water Man ...

on the south end. Today, that connection is underground and reappears above ground in Wakulla County. The shores of the lake attracted ancient Paleoindians and the

Apalachee The Apalachee were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, specifically an Indigenous people of Florida, who lived in the Florida Panhandle until the early 18th century. They lived between the Aucilla River and Ochlockonee River,B ...

later on. From the 1830s to 1860 the land around the lake was home to a few

cotton plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

Later history

Lake Miccosukee's descriptions have changed through time, particularly in regard to coverage of the lake's surface with

aquatic plants Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments ( saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a plant tha ...

. Like

Lake Lafayette Lake Lafayette is a prairie lake located in the coastal lowland in eastern Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida with US 27 / State Road 20 running close on its south side. History Prehistoric Originally known as Prairie Lake, Lake Lafayette ...

and

Lake Iamonia Lake Iamonia is a large, subtropical prairie lake in northern Leon County, Florida, United States, created during the Pleistocene epoch. History Forming Iamonia Lake Iamonia's base was established during the Early Pleistocene through submergenc ...

in Leon County, this was a prairie lake. In 1876, a plant-clogged Lake Miccosukee was described as being covered by maidencane,

monocotyledonous Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, ( Lilianae ''sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are grass and grass-like flowering plants (angiosperms), the seeds of which typically contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. They constitute one of ...

and white bonnets. In 1914, a large amount of open water was noted, the lake was said to be covered with water to a depth of 2 to 5 feet. The southern end had

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns a ...

and

buttonbush Buttonbush is a common name for several plants and may refer to: *''Cephalanthus'', a genus of shrubs or small trees in the madder family, Rubiaceae, especially: **''Cephalanthus occidentalis'', the common ''Cephalanthus'' species in eastern North ...

es projecting above the water. Aerial photographs taken in 1976 and 1988 show a plant-clogged lake. Only 19.4% of the lake was open water. Around the late 1940s, aquatic plant coverage of the lake's surface varied as the basin periodically emptied and refilled on a 10 year cycle. This is a natural cycle for lakes of this type in northern Florida such as Lake Iamonia and Lake Jackson in Leon County. As aquatic vegetation grew back, more and more of the lake's surface gradually became overgrown with plant life. More extensive restoration could have created deep areas within the lake and future open water habitats, but permits could not be obtained form the Forestry Service to allow fires to burn the muck deposits within the lake. There was concern that smoke from the fires could cause traffic accidents on Highway 90 which crosses the lake system at its south end. In 1954, an earthen dike, concrete spillway, and gate was built around the sinkhole to keep the lake from drying naturally as it had done in previous years as a prairie lake. At the southern end of the lake, a wooden weir was built to keep the water from disappearing into the Lloyd Sink. Between 1954 and 1988, the lake was stabilized to the point that it only drained twice. Water level stabilization accelerates the aging process of lake by allowing build-up of excess plant life, sediment, and muck created from dying plant life. By the late 1990s the lake was almost completely covered with plant life and in essence turning the lake into a

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found ...

good for

alligator An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis''). Additional ...

s and

waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which ...

but poor for

sport fishing Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing or game fishing, is fishing for leisure, exercise or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is professional fishing for profit; or subsistence fishing, which is fishin ...

Restoration

In 1999, a drought struck northern Florida and part of the lake was allowed to drain into the aquifer. The lake was excavated in many places and most of the lake bottom was burned during the draw-down to get rid of the

muck Muck most often refers to: *Muck (soil), a soil made up primarily of humus from drained swampland Muck may also refer to: Places Europe * Muck, Scotland, an island * Isle of Muck, County Antrim, a small island connected by sand spit to Portmu ...

. Restoration provides for healthy populations of fish and other wild life. Further restoration could have occurred creating deeper areas within the lake. The Florida Forestry Service could not obtain fire permits with concerns of traffic accidents on nearby

U.S. Highway 90 U.S. Route 90 or U.S. Highway 90 (US 90) is an east–west major United States highway in the Southern United States. Despite the "0" in its route number, US 90 never was a full coast-to-coast route. With the exception of a short-lived ...

Recreation

Lake Miccosukee provides

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form ...

hunting in north Florida and has scenic value. One endangered species of plant exists in only three places in the world. The

Miccosukee gooseberry ''Ribes echinellum'', the Miccosukee gooseberry, is a very rare North American shrub in the currant family, native to the southeastern United States. It has only a few known populations. The Florida populations were discovered first, in 1924 at ...

(''Ribes echinellum'') can be found on two places on the shores of Lake Miccosukee.

References

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