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Painted murals and patchwork caladium fields illustrate Lake Placid's past and present.
[ By Chelle Koster Walton for VISIT FLORIDA ]
On the high rolling hills of the southern Lake Wales Ridge of Central Florida, gaunt, long-horned steers low in throaty protest to the cracking whips. Slowly the rains begin, and build to a thundery crescendo. The cowmen's yelps and the pounding hoofs grow loud and more urgent as summer lightning wields its threat of strikes and stampede.
But there's no need to fear, for this scene is frozen in time. The misty rain and colorful cattle are all part of a massive, interactive mural sponsored by the Highlands County Cattlemen's Association and the Noon Rotary Club on the long wall of Lake Placid's Winn Dixie on Interlake Boulevard.
In the town of Lake Placid, 34 realistic and stylized murals on the sides of historic and commercial buildings take visitors on a virtual journey through local history. With the dedication of its first mural May 1993, the Lake Placid Mural Society has helped establish Lake Placid as a community intent on preserving its history in an artistic, imaginative and creative way. Three of the larger-than-life murals, the Cattle Drive, the Lost Bear Cub and the Old Train Depot, are programmed to come alive with realistic sound effects. Most of the murals are within walking distance along Interlake Boulevard and Main Street.
The town's 1926 ACL Railroad depot, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, houses the Lake Placid Historical Society and welcomes visitors with display of historic furnishings, photos, clippings, clothing, and other Lake Placid artifacts.
Originally known as Lake Stearns, the town was renamed Lake Placid in the late 1920s when educator, librarian, visionary, and Dewey Decimal System inventor, Dr. Melvil Dewey developed the town as a winter resort for his wealthy friends from Lake Placid, New York. Nearly 70 years later, in 1996, the Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI) organization, coordinated by the Governor's Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development, named Lake Placid, "Florida's Outstanding Rural Community of the Year."
[Mural photography by Ray Stanyard, Caladium photography courtesy of Happiness Farms]
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