Sugarloaf Mountain (Florida)

Sugarloaf Mountain is the fifth-highest named point in the U.S. state of Florida. At 312ft above sea level it is also the highest point on the geographic Florida Peninsula. The mountain is in Lake County, near the town of Clermont. Comparatively, Florida's highest point, Britton Hill, rises to above sea level in the Florida Panhandle. However, Sugarloaf Mountain is the most prominent point in the entire state.GeographySugarloaf Mountain, located along the western shore of Lake Apopka in Lake County, Florida, is the northernmost named upland associated with the Lake Wales Ridge, a series of sand hills running south to Highlands County. The mountain, really a ridge with rolling dome-like peaks, rises abruptly from the surrounding flat terrain. Its prominence is thought to be, with its highest peak having a local prominence of approximately relative to the surrounding ridge. Despite not being the highest point in Florida (which is Britton Hill near the Alabama border, the lowest high point of any U.S. state), Sugarloaf Mountain's summit is the most prominent peak in the state, and in a national ranking, is more prominent than the most prominent hills in both Louisiana and Delaware.HistoryPrior to the 20th century, Sugarloaf Mountain was a wilderness dominated by sandhill and flatwood pine forests. By the 1920s, logging had stripped the mountain of its hardwood vegetation, permanently altering its native environment. Scrub began to grow on the mountain's slopes, in addition to grapes, which were planted mostly to the south of the mountain for a decade or so.