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
Okeechobee, Florida , of which is land and (0.96%) is water. Okeechobee is just cool enough in January to fall short of an Am or Af (tropical monsoon or rainforest) classification and thus has a Cfa (humid subtropical) climate. On 25 December 1837, Lake Okeechobee became the site of an important battle in the Second Seminole War, fought between a number of Seminole Native American groups, the United States government, and allied militias. The battlefield is now the site of a park, and annual reenactments. In 2016, Okeechobee became home to the Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival. This multi-day, multi-genre music festival