August 29, 1923 Highlander
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Last updated 9/5/2023 at 1:01pm
Courtesy Lake Wales Public Library archives
The August 29, 1923 Highlanders reported that, although the town of Hillcrest Heights had been approved by the legislature, the three person council wasn't ready to start governing the 80-acre community centered on the Hillcrest Lodge, overlooking "Lake Caloosa," commonly called Crooked Lake. The change to Caloosa had been proposed by the economist and developer Roger Babson of Massachusetts, who was laying out his own town next to the lake and planned a bank there. He advocated the change because he didn't want to open the "Crooked Lake Bank." Bank fraud was a very real problem before Federal regulations and deposit insurance were established a decade later. In other news, the proposed $4 million bond issue for construction of a network of paved roads was progressing. That effort would eventually lead to the moniker of "Imperial Polk." As that was happening, Scenic Highway was submerged by flooding near Mountain Lake.
The Lake Wales Highlander of 100 years ago reveals much about the history of our community.
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, and under several different names was published six times a week on Sunday mornings and Monday through Friday afternoons until 1995.
The original Lake Wales News was a weekly broadsheet newspaper that also served the community for many decades, later changing to a tabloid format before closing 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.
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