Highland Park, FL

Highland Park is a tiny Polk County village south of Lake Wales, spread across roughly 500 acres and two lakes, Lake Amoret and Lake Easy. The 2020 census counted 251 residents. State Road 17 runs about two miles west, linking the village with Lake Wales to the north and Frostproof to the south. The Lakeland-Winter Haven metropolitan area reaches around it, but Highland Park remains a small incorporated municipality with its own line on the map.

Development began here in 1919, and the village incorporated in 1927. The water tower marks the administration office, while the village's historic-home tours point to an older Florida story of lake lots, palms, and modest civic streets. Lake Amoret and Lake Easy give the place its defining geography, and the compact size makes local government easy to see in everyday life. Highland Park is a lakeside village with a metro address, a pair of named waters, and a long-running habit of keeping its own municipal identity.