Orange Lake (Florida)

Cross Creek is a natural waterway in Florida connecting Lochloosa Lake to Orange Lake, in southeastern Alachua County. It is 1.0 mile (1.6 km) long, and carries the outflow from Lochloosa Lake into Orange Lake. It is normally navigable by small boats, but has completely dried up in droughts. The creek has been designated an Outstanding Florida Water. County Road 325 crosses the creek. Cross Creek gives its name to the community of Cross Creek, which is famous as the home of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings for the last 25 years of her life, and for being the subject of her memoir Cross Creek, which was made into a motion picture in 1983.

Boardman is an unincorporated community in Marion County, Florida, United States. It lies just east of U.S. Route 441 / State Road 25, along Northwest 219th Street.

The McIntosh Presbyterian Church is an historic Carpenter Gothic style Presbyterian church located at 5825 Avenue F, corner of 7th Street, in McIntosh, Florida in the United States. The church was founded in 1885 as Center Point Church and the present building was built in 1907 and its name was changed to McIntosh Presbyterian Church on November 11, 1908. The church has gabled sidewalls facing each street. Each of these sidewalls features a large triptych lancet window. The main entrance is in a corner-facing bell tower set a 45 degree angle to the sidewalls.In 1989, the McIntosh Presbyterian Church was listed in A Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture, published by the University of Florida Press. It is also a contributing property in the McIntosh Historic District. McIntosh Presbyterian Church is still an active church in the Presbytery of St. Augustine. Thomas Lane is currently its Commissioned Lay Pastor.

The McIntosh Historic District is a U.S. historic district (designated as such on November 18, 1983) located in McIntosh, Florida. The district is bounded by the former Atlantic Coast Line Railroad High Springs—Croom Line Right-of-Way, 10th Street, Avenues C and H. It contains 75 buildings. Contributing properties in the district include the McIntosh Presbyterian Church. Though the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad abandoned the railroad line by 1982, both the passenger station and freight station still exist as contributing properties. U.S. Route 441 runs directly through the district one block east of 10th Street.

McIntosh is a town in Marion County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 463. It is part of the Ocala Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The Evinston Community Store and Post Office (also known as the Fred Wood Store or Wood & Swink) is a historic combined store and post office in Evinston, Florida, United States. It is located on CR 225, north of the Alachua/Marion county border. The address is 18320 Southeast County Road 225. On May 5, 1989, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Ocala Gainesville Poker was a casino and former Jai Alai fronton located in Orange Lake, Florida (some sources say Reddick, Florida), that specialized in poker tournaments and live poker games. It was located midway between Ocala and Gainesville. The facility had 28 poker tables and 18 large plasma TVs that could be customized to display preferred sporting events or tracks for Inter Track Wagering (ITW) such as horse or dog races. The casino offered tableside massages at a rate of $1 per minute. A bar and café was available on-site. Hosting private parties and tournaments was available at the venue. The establishment also had a jai alai team when in season. The facility was 60,000 square feet and on a 50-acre property.The institution was first established in 1973 as Ocala Jai-alai, which was a branch office of the Miami fronton. At one time, the jai alai performances could attract about 2,000 people. However, jai alai declined in popularity, so in 2008 the name was changed to Ocala Poker & Jai Alai with the focus shifted to poker.Due to the decline in popularity of jai alai, Ocala Gainesville Poker along with other frontons in Florida held matches as few as thirty days a year to satisfy the requirement to maintain its gambling license. They held forty performances (twenty matinee and twenty night performances) of eight games each to fulfill its legal requirements, but the performances were done behind curtains so as not to distract the poker tables. The jai alai season generally was in February and March.Previously the fronton would have ten to twelve players, but by 2014, they used the same two non-professional players, former University of Florida football players Chris Doering and Judd Davis. The casino generated profit through other means, such as poker. It had been criticized particularly by those in the jai alai community for holding low quality jai alai matches with non-professional players.Second Chance Jai Alai operated the business until it defaulted on its rent and other agreements in 2017. At that, time the Ocala Breeders’ Sales (OBS) group who had purchased the property in July 2000 took over the operation and renamed it to Ocala Gainesville Poker.Ocala Gainesville Poker permanently closed on October 28, 2023 to help facilitate the new room in the region, Ocala Bets, also owned by OBS.

Orange Lake is an unincorporated community in Marion County, Florida, United States. It is located on US 441, on Orange Lake south of McIntosh. Ninety-five percent of the community is located in Marion County while the remaining five percent is located in northern neighbor Alachua. The entire lake is located in Alachua County but is under the jurisdiction of Marion County Water Management. The Marion County portion of Orange Lake is part of the Ocala Metropolitan Statistical Area, while the Alachua County portion is part of the Gainesville Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Evinston is an unincorporated community in Alachua and Marion counties, Florida, United States. The Alachua County portion of Evinston is part of the Gainesville Metropolitan Statistical Area, while the Marion County portion is part of the Ocala Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Lochloosa Lake is a lake about 6,100 acres (2,500 ha) in area in Alachua County, Florida, about 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Hawthorne, and is up to 10 feet (3.0 m) deep. It is drained by Cross Creek into Orange Lake. It is largely surrounded by the Lochloosa Wildlife Management Area, and is a Fish Management Area. Lochloosa Creek is its largest tributary. The lake is noted for bass fishing.As of 2017, the lake has not returned to levels seen before a drought in 2012. The lake has become choked with weeds such as hydrilla. The water level in the lake varies by up to 10 feet (3.0 m). The variation in water level is healthy for the lake, and the Orange Creek Basin Advisory Council decided to not try to force a stable water level.

Lochloosa is an unincorporated community in Alachua County, Florida, United States. The community is located on the eastern shore of Lochloosa Lake along U.S. Route 301, 5.6 miles (9.0 km) south of Hawthorne. Lochloosa has a post office with ZIP code 32662, which opened on September 9, 1881.

Lochloosa Creek is a stream that flows from north to south through eastern Alachua County, Florida. Its watershed composed of 42.7 square miles (111 km2) through natural and Silvicultural land use. It is the largest tributary to Lochloosa Lake. Lochloosa Creek is longest creek in Alachua County.