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| Lake George | |
|---|---|
 St. Johns River channel entering Lake George from the south. | |
  Lake George  Lake George | |
| Location | Volusia /Putnam counties,Florida, United States |
| Coordinates | 29°17′12″N81°35′53″W / 29.28667°N 81.59806°W /29.28667; -81.59806 |
| Primary inflows | St. Johns River Juniper Creek Salt Creek Silver Glen Springs |
| Primary outflows | St. Johns River |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Max. length | 11 mi (18 km) |
| Max. width | 6 mi (9.7 km) |
| Surface area | 46,000 acres (19,000 ha)[1] |
| Average depth | 8 ft (2.4 m) |
| Islands | Drayton Island Hog Island |
| Settlements | Astor, Florida Georgetown, Florida Salt Springs, Florida Pierson, Florida Volusia, Florida |
Lake George orLake Welaka is a broad and shallowbrackishlake on theSt. Johns River in the U.S. state ofFlorida.
The St. Johns River flows out of the lake at the north end at Rocky Point. To the west of this is Salt Cove, taking the flow from Salt Creek. Just south of Salt Cove is Lisk Point, named for a Dr. Lisk who built a house near the point. Steamboats coming down fromJacksonville made a counter clockwise loop around the lake with their first stop at Lisk Point.
Lake George is the second largest lake in Florida, afterLake Okeechobee. Lake George was the third largest lake behindLake Apopka, but conversion of thelittoral zone on the northern side of Lake Apopka to farm fields in the previous century reduced its surface area.
The name of Lake Welaka is taken from "Welaka" (meaning "chain of lakes"), the name for the St. Johns River inMuskogee language of theSeminole.[2] The first European to visit the lake wasPedro Menéndez de Avilés, who as theSpanishgovernor ofFlorida, explored the St. Johns River in the spring of 1596.[3]
Later, the Florida territory was sold toBritain. The royal botanist in America toKing George III,John Bartram, explored the St. Johns River in 1765. It was John Bartram who gave the lake the name Lake George, in honor of his king.[3]
In more recent years, Lake George has been home to an operationalU.S. military bombing and aerial mining range. The range is affiliated with theU.S. Navy'sPinecastle Bombing Range located in theOcala National Forest just west of Lake George. The bombing ranges date back toWorld War II, when the Navy built bomb targets in Lake George and nearby Crescent Lake, and stationed personnel in the area to maintain the targets and perform search and rescue operations for downed pilots. Today, the range is under the operational control of nearbyNaval Air Station Jacksonville.
The lake also hosts a wide variety of wildlife ranging from migratory water birds and alligators to a number of normally marine animals. Local springs in Lake George (and throughout the St Johns River) impart enough salt to the system to make the habitat suitable to resident and migratory marine species likeAtlantic stingray, various species ofmullet,striped bass andblue crabs. There is a large enough blue crab population to support a local fishery, making it one of the only fresh water blue crab fisheries in the world.