The history of people and the environment intertwine at Lake Apopka, where beginning in the 1940s about 20,000 acres of wetlands along the lake’s north shore were drained and diked to create farmland in rich marsh “muck” soil. Combined with a long growing season, this soil produced a variety of vegetables and made the area one of the top vegetable-producing regions in the United States. A rich and diverse human and cultural history grew on the farms around Lake Apopka as workers helped feed the nation for decades and supported the war effort of the mid-1940s. For some workers, farm labor offered the chance to settle in the area instead of migrating with the seasons, and people who moved to central Florida for these jobs created a diverse workforce that included people from the Philippines, the Bahamas, Mexico, Jamaica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Haiti, and German prisoners of war during World War II. The work was arduous and demanded skill, dexterity, and speed as laborers endured heat, humidity, snakes, biting insects, winter frost, and cold while spending hours stooped or crawling on hands and knees to harvest crops. Farming directly along Lake Apopka’s north shore ended in the late 1990s, when a major restoration effort began and the St. Johns River Water Management District purchased farms to protect water resources and return the fields to wetlands, reducing discharges of fertilizers and pesticides that had turned the water pea green and harmed wildlife.