{"id":60825,"date":"2025-07-03T20:42:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T00:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=60825"},"modified":"2025-07-03T20:42:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T00:42:21","slug":"lehigh-acres-15000-year-old-sinkhole-secures-2-2-million-for-new-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2025\/07\/lehigh-acres-15000-year-old-sinkhole-secures-2-2-million-for-new-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh Acres’ 15,000-year-old sinkhole secures $2.2 million for new park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 200-foot deep “bottomless lake” connects directly to drinking water aquifers and will feature trails, improved security, and an interpretive center, thanks to newly approved funds<\/p>\n\n\n

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A 200-foot sinkhole in Lehigh Acres that’s been around for 15,000 years is getting a new life as a park and educational center after securing crucial funding for the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bottomless lake, known as Leeland Lake, spans four acres and is the oldest landmark in Lehigh Acres. It connects directly to local drinking water aquifers, making it a critical part of the local water system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s an old relic, something that happened in geology that long ago,” said David Lindsay with the Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District. “We want to preserve this area, make it into a park that the residents can enjoy, as well as an interpretive center museum for people to come visit, and for schools to visit and learn about how Lehigh developed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engineers will develop trails and improve security around the site as part of the revitalization project, now possible thanks to the newly secured funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lindsay says people will need to be patient with the project as they still need to purchase the building for the center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s going to take a little while to open. Our goal is to get it open sometime in 2027,” Lindsay said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plans include cleaning up the site, installing a protective fence, and creating a public park. They also want to purchase a building on the property to create a Lehigh Acres museum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 200-foot deep “bottomless lake” connects directly to drinking water aquifers and will feature trails, improved security, and an interpretive center, thanks to newly approved funds A 200-foot sinkhole in… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":60826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[3084,3083],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60825"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60827,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60825\/revisions\/60827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}