Hendry County is a county in the Florida Heartland region of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,619, a 1.2% increase from 39,140 at the 2010 census. Its county seat is LaBelle.
Okeechobee County is a county located in the Florida Heartland region of the state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,644. The county seat is Okeechobee.
The Everglades is a natural region of flooded grasslands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee. Water leaving the lake in the wet season forms a slow-moving river 60 miles (97 km) wide and over 100 miles (160 km) long, flowing southward across a limestone shelf to Florida Bay at the southern end of the state. The Everglades experiences a wide range of weather patterns, from frequent flooding in the wet season to drought in the dry season. Throughout the 20th century, the Everglades suffered significant loss of habitat and environmental degradation.
Clewiston is a city in Hendry County, Florida, United States. Its location is 80 miles (130 km) northwest of Fort Lauderdale on the Atlantic coastal plain. The population was 7,327 at the 2020 census, up from 7,155 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city in the Clewiston micropolitan area.
Lake Okeechobee is the largest freshwater lake in the U.S. state of Florida. It is the eighth-largest natural freshwater lake among the 50 states of the United States and the second-largest natural freshwater lake contained entirely within the contiguous 48 states, after Lake Michigan.
The Caloosahatchee River is a river on the southwest Gulf Coast of Florida in the United States, approximately 67 miles (108 km) long. It drains rural areas on the northern edge of the Everglades, east of Fort Myers. An important link in the Okeechobee Waterway, a manmade inland waterway system of southern Florida, the river forms a tidal estuary along most of its course and has become the subject of efforts to restore and preserve the Everglades.
The South Central Florida Express, Inc. is a common carrier shortline railroad in southern Florida run by U.S. Sugar Corporation. Its trains operate from Sebring to Fort Pierce via Clewiston around the southern perimeter of Lake Okeechobee, and serves customers at 26 locations. With 171 miles (275 km) of track, the SCXF is the largest private agricultural railroad in the U.S.
The Glades culture is an archaeological culture in southernmost Florida that lasted from about 500 BCE until shortly after European contact. Its area included the Everglades, the Florida Keys, the Atlantic coast of Florida north through present-day Martin County and the Gulf coast north to Marco Island in Collier County. It did not include the area around Lake Okeechobee, which was part of the Belle Glade culture.
Robert S. Carr is an American archaeologist and the current executive director of The Archaeological and Historical Conservancy, Inc. He specializes in Southeastern archaeology, with particular emphasis on archaeology in Florida. He has also conducted fieldwork in the Bahamas.
The Dixie Crystal Theatre is a historic site in Clewiston, Hendry County, Florida. It is located at 100 East Sugarland Highway. It first opened in 1941. In 1998, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Lock No. 1, North New River Canal, which opened in 1912, is a historic lock on the North New River Canal located between Davie and Plantation, Florida, United States. It is located south of Plantation on SR 84. On February 17, 1978, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
The Florida Heartland is a region of Florida located to the north and west of Lake Okeechobee, composed of six inland, predominantly rural counties—DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands, and Okeechobee. In 2020, The US Census Bureau recorded the population of the Florida Heartland region at 251,927. The most populous county in the region is Highlands County. Highlands County also contains the region's two largest cities - Avon Park and Sebring. Unlike the coastal areas to the east and west, the rural nature of the Florida Heartland is culturally similar to that of the Florida panhandle and the Deep South in general rather than the rest of South Florida. The Florida Heartland region was originally settled and inhabited by Americans of predominantly English ancestry during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While located in Palm Beach County, the nearby rural cities of South Bay, Belle Glade and Pahokee as well as the census-designated place of Lake Harbor, located on the southeastern shore of Lake Okeechobee, are more associated with the Florida Heartland than the remainder of South Florida. The same could also apply to the Collier County communities of Immokalee, Ave Maria and Harker as well as to the Martin County community of Port Mayaca. Occasionally included are the southern Polk County communities of Fort Meade, Frostproof and River Ranch as well as Yeehaw Junction in Osceola County.
A national push for expansion and progress toward the latter part of the 19th century stimulated interest in draining the Everglades, a region of tropical wetlands in southern Florida, for agricultural use. According to historians, "From the middle of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century, the United States went through a period in which wetland removal was not questioned. Indeed, it was considered the proper thing to do."
An ongoing effort to remedy damage inflicted during the 20th century on the Everglades, a region of tropical wetlands in southern Florida, is the most expensive and comprehensive environmental repair attempt in history. The degradation of the Everglades became an issue in the United States in the early 1970s after a proposal to construct an airport in the Big Cypress Swamp. Studies indicated the airport would have destroyed the ecosystem in South Florida and Everglades National Park. After decades of destructive practices, both state and federal agencies are looking for ways to balance the needs of the natural environment in South Florida with urban and agricultural centers that have recently and rapidly grown in and near the Everglades.
U.S. Sugar Corporation is a privately owned agricultural business based in Clewiston, Florida. The company farms over 230,000 acres of land in the counties of Hendry, Glades, Martin, and Palm Beach. It is the largest producer of sugarcane in the United States by volume, producing over 700,000 tonnes per year. The company is also a large producer of refined sugar, sweet corn and oranges.
The Clewiston News was a newspaper serving Clewiston, Florida, USA, and all of Hendry County and the surrounding area from 1928 to 2018. Historic issues of The Clewiston News are available in the Florida Digital Newspaper Library.
Frederick H. Trimble was an American architect in Central Florida from the early 1900s through the 1920s. He worked in the Colonial Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival and Prairie Style.
J. Clinton Shepherd (1888-1975) was an American magazine illustrator, sculptor and muralist.
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's Haines City Branch was a railroad line running from their main line in Haines City, Florida south through southern Central Florida. The line notably ran through Lake Wales, Avon Park, Sebring, and Immokalee and would stretch as far south as Everglades City upon its completion in 1928. Everglades City would be the southernmost point the entire Atlantic Coast Line Railroad system would ever reach. The Haines City Branch was one of the Atlantic Coast Line's major additions to its Florida network, much of which was previously part of the Plant System.
U.S. Sugar 148, formerly Florida East Coast 148, is a 4-6-2 steam locomotive built in April 1920 by American Locomotive Company (ALCO) of Richmond, Virginia, originally for the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC). It hauled passenger and freight trains between Jacksonville and Miami, Florida, including FEC's Overseas Railroad to Key West, Florida until the line was destroyed in 1935. The locomotive was sold in 1952 to U.S. Sugar Corporation (USSC) to haul sugarcane trains in Clewiston, Florida.
