Babson Park is a census-designated place in Polk County, Florida, on the shore of Crooked Lake along the Lake Wales Ridge in the state's central highlands. Its population was 1,330 at the 2020 census. The community sits east of Lake Wales along Scenic Highway 17, the Ridge Scenic Highway, which follows the spine of the ancient sand ridge through the county's citrus and lake country. The community takes its name from Roger Babson, the economist and entrepreneur who purchased about 400 acres at the Crooked Lake townsite in 1923 with the intention of building a planned town, renaming the settlement Babson Park after himself. That legacy of education and planning continued with the founding of Webber College, now Webber International University, a private, not-for-profit business school whose 110-acre campus borders Crooked Lake and enrolls students from across the United States and dozens of countries. The university has anchored the community's identity for nearly a century. Crooked Lake is the community's centerpiece, offering boating, water skiing, and fishing, and lakeside living is the dominant residential character. The Lake Wales Ridge itself is one of Florida's most ecologically distinctive landscapes, its scrub and sandhill habitats sheltering plants and animals found nowhere else. Bok Tower Gardens, with its historic singing tower and landscaped grounds, lies a short drive away in Lake Wales, and the ridge's state forests and preserves provide hiking, birding, and wildlife viewing. Public school students attend Polk County Public Schools, including a charter elementary school in the community, with middle and high schools in nearby Lake Wales. For homebuyers, Babson Park offers quiet, lakeside living in a small, education-oriented community, with the amenities of Lake Wales and the Lakeland–Winter Haven metro area within easy reach.