Lake Mack-Forest Hills, FL

Lake Mack–Forest Hills is a Lake County CDP made from two unincorporated communities: Forest Hills around its namesake lake and Lake Mack Park around Lake Mack. The 2020 census counted 992 residents. The CDP sits in northeastern Lake County, about eight miles west of DeLand, with Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford as its wider metro frame. Its names are easy to mix up, but the local map is simple once the lakes are in view: Forest Hills in the middle, Lake Mack Park to the southwest, and rural roads running toward the St. Johns River.

February 2, 2007 remains a serious part of the community's story. A high-end EF3 tornado reached the Lake Mack area before crossing into Volusia County; the storm survey recorded 86 homes destroyed, 144 damaged, and 13 deaths in the Lake Mack area. Those numbers describe loss, not a landmark, and the neighborhood's present identity is in the homes, roads, and lakes that followed. Lake Mack–Forest Hills is a place where two small communities share a census name and a hard-earned memory of Central Florida weather.