ABSTRACT
With a modern area of 700 square miles† and an average diameter of 30 miles, Lake Okeechobee (usually pronounced “oˉk-a -˘choˉ’-beˉ”) is by far the largest lake in the southeastern United States, and it was somewhat larger prior to drainage (see “The Predrainage Lake” in the following text). Fittingly, the name Okeechobee is from Hitchiti words for water (oki) and big (chubi). Despite this regional acclaim, it is exceeded in North America by Utah’s Great Salt Lake, a lake in Alaska, and many lakes in the Canadian interior, and it is dwarfed by all five Great Lakes. To emphasize its size, some use the statistic that Lake Okeechobee is the second largest freshwater lake within the lower 48 states. The justification: of the Great Lakes, only Lake Michigan (about 22,000 square miles) is completely in the United States, and the Great Salt Lake (varying between 1,000 and 2,500 square miles, depending on rainfall) is saline, not fresh water. In using whatever statistic serves the purpose, be aware that Lake Okeechobee is very shallow, so its water volume is relatively small for its size, which is typical of lakes in flat, lowland regions.
