Lakeland, Florida
Lakeland is a city in Central Florida. Located along Interstate 4 east of Tampa and west of Orlando, it is the most populous city in Polk County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau release, the city had a population of 112,641. Lakeland is a principal city of the Lakeland–Winter Haven Metropolitan Statistical Area. Lakeland is best-known for its numerous lakes, picturesque downtown, and as the birthplace of Publix. The town is sometimes locally referred to by the nickname "Swan City" due to its sizeable population of swans, all of whom are descendants of two mute swans gifted to Lakeland by Queen Elizabeth II in 1957. European-American settlers arrived in Lakeland from Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina in the 1870s. The city expanded in the 1880s with the arrival of rail service, with the first freedmen railway workers settling here in 1883. They and European immigrants also came because of land development opportunities with farming, citrus, cattle and phosphate industry developing. Lakeland is home to the . History Prehistory The first Paleo-Indians reached the central Florida area near the end of the last ice age, as they followed big game south. As the ice melted