Lake Wales, Florida |Lake Wales, Florida| |— City —| |Polk
County and the state of Florida| |• Total||14 sq mi (36.3 km2)|
|• Land||13.3 sq mi (34.6 km2)| |• Water||0.7 sq mi (1.7 km2)|
|Elevation||148 ft (45 m)| |• Density||728.1/sq mi (280.8/km2)|
|Time zone||Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)| |• Summer (DST)||EDT (UTC-4)|
|GNIS feature ID||0285290| Lake Wales is a city in Polk County,
Florida, United States. The population was 10,194 at the 2000
census. As of 2004, the population estimated by the U.S. Census
Bureau is 11,802 . It is part of the Lakeland–Winter Haven
Metropolitan Statistical Area. Lake Wales is located in central
Florida, west of Lake Kissimmee and east of Tampa. The land
around the present city was surveyed in 1879 by Sidney Irving
Wailes, who changed the name of a lake, then known as Watts
Lake, to Lake Wailes. The city of Lake Wales was established
near the lake in 1911-12, planned by the Lake Wales Land
Company. The spelling Wales was used for the city, although the
lake is still generally spelled