Highlands County Has a World Famous Racetrack, 47 Murals, a Lake Bigger Than Manhattan, and Nobody Knows About Any of It By Juliana Scolari | Golden Ridge Partners

I’m about to tell you about a Florida county that has one of the oldest endurance racetracks in the Americas, a downtown covered in 47 hand painted murals, a lake that is literally bigger than the island of Manhattan, a state park that has been standing since 1931, and a world class biological research station studying an ecosystem that exists almost nowhere else on earth.

And I promise you, at least 90% of Florida residents have never heard of any of this.

Welcome to Highlands County. I sell undeveloped land here. And honestly, the hardest part of my job is not the selling. It’s getting people to believe me when I describe this place.

A Racetrack Older Than Most of Your Grandparents’ Marriages

The Sebring International Raceway has been hosting the 12 Hours of Sebring since 1952. That makes it the oldest sports car endurance race in the Americas. Not just Florida. The entire Western Hemisphere.

Every March, the quiet little town of Sebring transforms into one of the loudest, most adrenaline soaked places in the state. Racing teams from all over the world show up. The air smells like exhaust and sunscreen and ambition. The entire county basically throws a party for a weekend and then goes right back to being the most peaceful place you’ve ever seen on Monday morning.

I find that duality hilarious and also kind of perfect. It’s a county that knows how to have a good time and also knows when to be quiet. Not enough places can say that.

47 Murals and a Flower Nobody Asked About

Lake Placid, one of the three main towns in Highlands County, has 47 murals painted on buildings throughout downtown. Not graffiti. Not someone’s weekend project. Commissioned, curated, genuinely beautiful murals that tell the story of the town, the region, and the people who built it.

You can spend an entire afternoon walking from one to the next, and each one is different. Some are historical. Some are whimsical. Some are the kind of art that makes you stand there for a minute and think about things you don’t usually think about while standing on a sidewalk in south central Florida.

Lake Placid also calls itself the Caladium Capital of the World. Caladiums are tropical plants with big, colorful, heart shaped leaves, and this town grows more of them than anywhere else on the planet. They host a Caladium Festival every summer that draws people from all over. I genuinely did not know competitive caladium culture was a thing until I started selling land here, and now I am fully invested. These people take their leaves seriously and I respect it.

A Lake Bigger Than Manhattan (Not a Typo)

Lake Istokpoga covers over 27,000 acres. Manhattan, the entire island, is about 14,600 acres. Which means this one lake in Highlands County is nearly twice the size of one of the most famous pieces of real estate on the planet.

And almost nobody outside of Florida fishing circles knows it exists.

Lake Istokpoga is one of the top bass fishing lakes in the entire state. We’re talking trophy largemouth bass, the kind of fish that makes people drive four hours with a boat trailer just for a chance. Anglers come here from all over the Southeast, and when they get here, they find a lake so big and so uncrowded that they can fish for hours without seeing another boat.

If you told someone in New York City that there’s a body of water nearly twice the size of their entire borough in a Florida county they’ve never heard of, they would not believe you. But there it is. Just sitting there. Being massive. Not charging admission.

A State Park That Predates Disney World by 40 Years

Highlands Hammock State Park opened in 1931. Let that sink in for a second. This park was welcoming visitors before the Golden Gate Bridge was finished. Before World War II. Before most of the state of Florida was even developed.

It was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and it’s one of the original four Florida state parks. There are old growth cypress trees in there that have been alive for hundreds of years. Elevated boardwalks take you through swamp ecosystems where you’ll see wildlife that has been doing its thing in this exact spot since long before anyone thought to put a theme park 90 minutes up the road.

Deer. Florida black bears. Gopher tortoises. More bird species than most people can name. And a canopy so thick that the temperature drops noticeably the moment you step onto the trail.

The entrance fee is a few dollars per vehicle. You could spend an entire day here and leave feeling like you just had a vacation that cost less than a sandwich at the airport.

A Scientific Secret Hidden in Plain Sight

The Archbold Biological Station sits on the Lake Wales Ridge in Highlands County, and it is one of the most important ecological research facilities in the country. Scientists from around the world come here to study the ancient sand scrub ecosystem that exists on this ridge, an ecosystem so rare and so old that many of its plant and animal species are found literally nowhere else on earth.

I know this sounds like something out of a nature documentary. That’s because it has been in several nature documentaries. The Lake Wales Ridge is a remnant of ancient sand dunes from when sea levels were higher, and the species that evolved here have been isolated for so long that they became entirely unique. Endangered plants, rare scrub jays, species that scientists are still studying and discovering.

And it’s in Highlands County. Quietly existing. Doing groundbreaking science while the rest of Florida argues about toll roads.

Why Owning Land Here Is the Smartest Quiet Move in Florida

I sell undeveloped land all over Florida, and I will tell you what I tell every buyer who calls me about Highlands County. This is the rare situation where the quality of the place and the affordability of the land are still on the same side.

That doesn’t last. It never does. Florida is adding roughly a thousand new residents every single day. The coastal markets are saturated. The metros are expensive. And the growth is pushing into interior counties like Highlands because that’s where the land is, that’s where the prices make sense, and that’s where there’s still room.

Some of my buyers want to build. Highlands County has reasonable building requirements for rural land, and construction costs here are significantly lower than in metro areas. People buy a lot, take their time planning, and build a home on their own schedule without anyone pressuring them or a bank breathing down their neck.

Others are holding. Buying affordable land in a growing state, in a county positioned between both coasts, with almost no carry cost. The property taxes on undeveloped land here are so low that holding a lot for five or ten years costs less than most people’s annual streaming budget. And the last time I checked, your Netflix subscription has never appreciated in value.

How I Make It Accessible

I’m Juliana Scolari and I run Golden Ridge Partners. I do owner financing on every lot I sell because the traditional banking system was not designed for people who want to buy a small piece of affordable land. Banks want big loans. Big commissions. Big paperwork. If your purchase doesn’t hit their minimum threshold, they don’t want to know you.

So I cut the banks out entirely. You put a small amount down, make easy monthly payments at 0% interest, and own the land free and clear when it’s paid off. No credit checks. No pre approval. No application that asks for your employment history going back to the summer you worked at a frozen yogurt shop in 2009.

And we have a 100 Day Love It or Swap It guarantee. If your lot doesn’t feel right, I’ll swap you into a different property. Because you should love your land, not just tolerate it.

Go See for Yourself

I could keep going. I haven’t even talked about the dark skies out here for stargazing, or the fact that Avon Park is the oldest city in the county with a downtown that has more soul than most planned communities manage in their entire existence. But at some point I need to stop writing and let you go look.

Every lot on our site has real photos and real pricing. No surprises. No bait and switch. Just land in one of the most interesting, undervalued counties in the state of Florida.

Browse Available Lots: goldenrp.land/inventory

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Or reach out directly. I am always happy to talk about Highlands County. Unreasonably happy, if I’m being honest.

Email: info@goldenrp.land

Phone: (407) 917-0848

 A racetrack that’s been roaring since 1952. Forty seven murals. A lake that dwarfs Manhattan. A state park from 1931. A research station studying species found nowhere else on earth. And land you can still afford. That’s Highlands County. And I don’t think it’s going to stay this quiet for long.

Juliana Scolari

Golden Ridge Partners