Photograph: LakeDesoto2019.jpg by Excel23 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Cropped to the 1200x750 attraction-card frame and converted to WebP by 1stFlorida.com. Opened and checked against the place before installation.

Columbia County attraction

Lake DeSoto

Columbia County · North Florida & First Coast

The lake in the middle of downtown Lake City, ringed by a walking path and used for the town's markets and holiday events.

ABOUT THIS PLACE

Lake DeSoto sits in historic downtown Lake City at 498 Northeast Lake DeSoto Circle, and the city says plainly that it has been a gathering place for locals and visitors for many years. A walking path runs around it with benches facing the water, which is what most people use it for on an ordinary day. The city puts its public events here: the Growers and Makers Market several times a year, Food Truck Wednesday, Trunk or Treat in the fall and the Light up the Night Christmas tree celebration in December. The lake is part of why the town is laid out as it is. Lake City was incorporated in 1859 under the name Alligator, taken from the Seminole community of Halapata Telofa, or Alligator Town, whose chief Halpatter Tustenuggee led warriors in the Second Seminole War. The story told locally is that the name was changed because the mayor's wife would not hang her lace curtains in a town called Alligator. Downtown was worked over in the 1990s with new shops and restaurants, and the Olustee memorial, put up in 1928, still stands there. The lake is the open space all of that is arranged around

GETTING THERE

Get Directions ↗Official place website ↗

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