GUEST POST: HARRIS CHAIN OF LAKES

Guest Post By TJ Fish, who knows more about Central Florida than us natives. If you love the water (like I do), if you love fishing, if you love boating, if you love exploring, this is a must read! Enjoy.

As I sat at my dining room table in Jackson, Tennessee studying the atlas page of Florida, I had just endured an hour-long phone interview.  I was ready to leave the bucolic tranquility of the Volunteer State for the robust and shiny Sunshine State.  I had just talked with the bosses at city hall of a town with a name that sounded Southern but looked Portuguese.  They offered me a job.  As I stared at the map, I became fascinated.  Tavares was located on a land bridge.

Geography gurus call it an isthmus.  I was fascinated with what a place that looked so cool on a map might look like in person.  I took that job.  That was 15 years ago.  What I discovered starting with my first day in Lake County is that Tavares is surrounded by a bunch of water.  What took subsequent years to discover is the magic of the massive network of waterways and the underlying ecosystem of the Harris Chain of Lakes.  

I learned that Lake County was settled in the 1880s largely due to access by steamboat.  I heard tales of modern-day brave souls that had navigated the chain north to the Ocklawaha River and on to the St. John’s River to Jacksonville and the Atlantic Ocean.  I was forewarned that such a venture should be accompanied by a chainsaw.  The wilderness surrounding the Ocklawaha through the Ocala National Forest can sometimes provide natural challenges.

The chain itself begins with the headwaters of Lake Apopka, which is the third largest lake in the state and is fed by a spring near Montverde.  The waters flow via a manmade canal to Lake Beauclair and Lake Carlton near Astatula and Lake Jem.  The waters then flow into Lake Dora passing by Mount Dora and Tavares to the Dora Canal (also manmade).  The canal then flows into Lake Eustis.

Meanwhile waters flow from Little Lake Harris, located between Astatula and Howey-in-the-Hills, into Lake Harris.  On the northern shore of Lake Harris is downtown Leesburg, which is wedged between Lake Harris and Lake Griffin to the north.  The waters flow from Lake Harris first through the Dead River to join the aforementioned waters in Lake Eustis.  From there, the chain flows through Haynes Creek (which features a lock with a six-foot drop) into Lake Griffin.  The waters flow north by Lady Lake into the Ocklawaha River and on to the Atlantic through downtown Jacksonville.

Some little-known facts… Lake Yale is also part of the Harris Chain.  However it is not connected like the rest of the chain with a navigable waterway.  Lake Apopka once overflowed in rainy season via a wetlands system near Astatula into Little Lake Harris.  Before the Dora Canal was dredged in the 1930s by the Army Corps of Engineers, it was known as the Elfin River.  Settlers had determined the waterway to be enchanted.

So get out on your boat.  Or get your friend to take you out on their boat.  And discover the magic of the Harris Chain of Lakes.  Enjoy the cool spots to dock and soak in the authenticity of Lake County.  If you are feeling adventurous, brave the Ocklawaha.  But don’t forget your chainsaw.

Harris Chain of Lakes

Elfin River n/n/a Dora Canal

Steamboat on the Ocklawaha River

Resident of the Dora Canal

Lake Dora

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