Apopka is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. The city's population was 41,542 at the 2010 census, up from 26,969 in 2000. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford Metropolitan Statistical Area. Apopka is a Seminole word for "Potato eating place". Apopka is often referred to as the "Indoor Foliage Capital of the World".

The earliest known inhabitants of the Apopka area were the Acuera people, members of the Timucua confederation. They had disappeared by 1730, probably decimated by diseases brought to Florida by Spanish colonists.

The Acuera were succeeded by refugees from Alabama and Georgia, who formed the new Seminole Indian tribe. They called the area Ahapopka. Aha, meaning "Potato," and papka, meaning "eating place".[1] By the 1830s, this settlement numbered about 200, and was the birthplace of the chief Coacoochee (known in English as "Wild Cat").

At the conclusion of the Second Seminole War, the U.S. Congress passed the Armed Occupation Act of 1842, forcing surviving natives at Ahapopka to abandon their village and seek refuge deeper in the wilderness of the Florida peninsula.

The early American settlers built a major trading center on the foundations of the earlier Indian settlement. Their population was large enough by 1857 to support the establishment of a Masonic lodge. In 1859 the lodge erected a permanent meeting place at what is now the intersection of Main Street (U.S. Highway 441) and Alabama Avenue.

The settlers in the vicinity of "The Lodge" were largely isolated during the Civil War, but the area rebounded once peace was re-established, and a population boom followed the construction of railroad lines through the region.

In 1882 the one square mile surrounding "The Lodge" was officially incorporated under the name "Apopka".

In 1905, the Apopka City Council authorized incorporation of the Apopka Water, Light, and Ice Company. Councilman A.M. Starbird was appointed its manager, but it was not until voters approved a $9,000 bond in 1914 that he was able to contract with International Harvester Corporation to construct a power plant, so electricity was not available in the city until February 10, 1915. This independent utility company was one of many that were gobbled up by the Florida Public Service Corporation in the 1920s. They continued to manage the city's utility needs until the 1940s, when they sold off its ice plants to the Atlantic Company, its electric service to Florida Power Corporation, and its water services to Florida Utilities.

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