Lakeland, Florida<\/h3>
Lakeland is a city in Polk County, Florida, along Interstate 4 east of Tampa. The westernmost city in Polk County, it is part of the Tampa Bay Area. According to the 2019 U.S. Census Bureau estimate, the city had a population of 112,136.[6] Lakeland is a principal city of the Lakeland\u2013Winter Haven Metropolitan Statistical Area.\n<\/p>
Native Americans lived in the area from soon after the end of the last ice age until the end of the Second Seminole War. European-American settlers arrived in Lakeland from South Carolina in the 1870s. The city expanded in the 1880s with the arrival of rail service, with the first freedmen railway workers settling here in 1883.[7] They and European immigrants also came because of new jobs in the large phosphate industry that developed. Lakeland is home to the 1,267-acre Circle B Bar Reserve.[citation needed]<\/p>
The first Paleo-Indians reached the central Florida area near the end of the last ice age, as they followed big game south.[24][25] As the ice melted and sea levels rose, these Native Americans ended up staying and thrived on the peninsula for thousands of years. By the time the first Spanish conquistadors arrived, an estimated 350,000 Native Americans were living in what is now the state of Florida.[26] Some of these first early tribes were the Tocobago, Timucua, and Calusa. \n<\/p>
In 1527, a Spanish map showed a settlement near the Rio de la Paz.[24][25] The arrival of the Spanish turned out to be disastrous to these Native American tribes. Within 150 years, the majority of the pre-Columbian Native American peoples of Florida had been wiped out. Those who had not succumbed to diseases such as smallpox or yellow fever were either killed or enslaved.[24][25][27][28] Little is left of these first Native Americans cultures in Polk County except for scant archaeological records, including a few personal artifacts and shell mounds. Eventually, the remnants of these tribes merged with the Creek Indians who had arrived from the north and became the Seminole Indian tribe.[25][28]<\/p><\/div>\n