Located in Florida's lake region, the city of Umatilla sits on a sandy ridge pocked by hundreds of lakes and depressions of sinkhole origin that leak water into the limestone Floridan aquifer, which, in turn, is drained by numerous nearby artesian springs. When Florida achieved American statehood in 1845, following nearly two centuries of ceding by the French, British, and Spanish via treaties, Central Florida was the last frontier of the eastern United States. In the early 1850s, pioneer Nathan Trowell brought his family beyond the St. John's River seeking health and prosperity. The family...