This Week in History: July 18, 1923

The Lake Wales Highlander of 100 years ago reveals much about the history of our community, including incipient battles over lake levels, and the potential for the further growth of Mountain Lake and the development of Edward Bok's garden sanctuary plans for the top of Iron Mountain.

Each week the Lake Wales News will publish a front-page image of the former Lake Wales Highlander from 100 years earlier, tracking the growth of the community a century ago, when Florida was in the midst of a great land price boom and rapid population growth..

The images are retrieved from the digital archives of the Lake Wales Public Library.

The Lake Wales Highlander eventually became The Daily Highlander under several different names, and was published six times a week as a Sunday morning paper, and afternoons Monday through Friday until 1995.The original Lake Wales News was a weekly broadsheet newspaper that also served the community for many decades until six years ago. Lake Wales was among only a handful of small communities that supported two local newspapers, a mark of the level of literacy and community interest here.