Restoration of the Everglades begins in the vicinity of Orlando. The Okeechobee River drains into Lake Okeechobee, a lake with an average depth of . During the wet season when the lake exceeds its capacity, the water leaves the lake in a very wide and shallow river, approximately long and wide. This wide and shallow flow is known as "sheetflow". The land gradually slopes toward Florida Bay, the historical destination of most of the water leaving the Everglades. Before drainage attempts, the Everglades comprised , taking up a third of the Florida peninsula. Since the early 19th century the Everglades have been a subject
Lake Okeechobee Lake Okeechobee Lake Okeechobee (), also known as Florida's Inland Sea, is the largest freshwater lake in the state of Florida. It is the ninth largest natural freshwater lake in the United States and the second largest natural freshwater lake (the largest being Lake Michigan) contained entirely within the contiguous United States. Okeechobee covers , approximately half the size of the state of Rhode Island, and is exceptionally shallow for a lake of its size, with an average depth of only . The lake is divided between Glades, Okeechobee, Martin, Palm Beach, and Hendry counties. All five counties meet at