Tiger Creek Forest is a gated, deed restricted rural acreage community in Polk County, southeast of Lake Wales near Babson Park, listed by neighborhood real estate guides as a community of roughly 1,700 wooded acres that borders The Nature Conservancy Tiger Creek Preserve (community and listing guides, 2026). It was platted in 1980, with the original Tiger Creek Forest approved by the Polk County Board of County Commissioners on June 10, 1980 and Tiger Creek Forest Addition approved on October 17, 1980 (Tiger Creek Owners Association records).
Every parcel is a minimum of five acres, with many tracts larger, served by roughly eleven miles of private shell rock and dirt roads that wind through the woods (community and listing guides, 2026). The community is zoned for horses and is described as horse and ATV friendly, with access to spring fed Lake Jacqueline for kayaking, canoeing, and fishing. Confirm the exact acreage, the road frontage, and any lake access for the specific tract.
Because this is land first, the money is made or lost on the tract and the covenants, not on the address. The recorded deed restrictions limit clearing to no more than a portion of any tract and restrict removal of larger living trees, and the lands are declared a wildlife sanctuary, so the wooded character is protected but development is constrained. Homes range from custom single-family builds to manufactured and mobile homes, so confirm the structure type, the well and septic, and the financing path per parcel.
The pitch is private country living on real acreage with a conservation preserve next door. The work is the diligence: read the recorded covenants, confirm the road maintenance and the annual association assessment, verify the well, septic, and legal access, and confirm flood and wetland lines on the tract before you buy the view of the woods.
