Keystone Heights, FL

Keystone Heights is a city in southwestern Clay County and the principal town of Florida's Lake Region. The 2020 census counted 1,446 residents. State Road 100 and State Road 21 tie the city to the surrounding lake country, with Lake Geneva along its north side and Lake Brooklyn to the north. Bradford County borders the west. The city's geography is a chain of water, sandy ridges, and roads, with the lakes doing much of the orienting.

ATTRThe Bushranger / CC BY-SA 4.0

Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park lies north along State Road 21. The park's entrance on that highway keeps it tied to the city's northern edge. One of Florida's first state parks, it was developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, and its lakes, sandhills, ravines, and longleaf pine stands remain part of the area's outdoor map. In town itself, the city maintains parks, a historic pavilion, and a calendar of civic events. Keystone Heights connects a small lake city to a state-park landscape shaped by New Deal construction.