Okeechobee County, Florida
The story of Okeechobee
Everything below is a single verifiable claim with a citation attached. Where the record is a local legend rather than a document, it says so.
etymology
How it got its name
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The name is Hitchiti, the ancestral language of most Florida Seminoles: oki, water, and chubi, big. Big water.
industry
What it lived on
- 1930
By the 1930s the area was shipping hundreds of train cars of winter vegetables a year, alongside poultry farms, catfish operations and a bullfrog breeding industry.
- 1865
After the Civil War ended in 1865 settlers began working the area as cattle range; Henry Parker was among the first, and Cow Creek Seminoles traded plumes and hides at his store for guns, ammunition and groceries.
claim to fame
What it is known for
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Lake Okeechobee is the eighth-largest natural freshwater lake in the fifty states and the largest contained entirely within the contiguous forty-eight - 730 square miles at an average depth of just nine feet.
figure
Worth knowing
- 1928
The 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane, the first recorded Category 5 hurricane in the North Atlantic, severely damaged the lake area.
landmark
What still stands
- 1837
The Okeechobee Battlefield, where on 25 December 1837 Seminole forces met US troops under Zachary Taylor in one of the largest battles of the Second Seminole War.
- 1928
Lake Okeechobee itself, ringed by the 40-foot Herbert Hoover Dike built after the 1928 hurricane, whose latest rehabilitation completed in January 2023.
- 1837
The Battle of Okeechobee was fought on Christmas Day 1837; Colonel Zachary Taylor led about 1,032 men against Seminole forces under Wild Cat, Sam Jones and Alligator.
reported · Battle of Lake Okeechobee - Wikipedia
- 1838
Fort Lloyd was established about eight miles north of Lake Okeechobee in 1838.
reported · History of Okeechobee County, Chapter 1
- 1842
The Second Seminole War ended in 1842, beginning about seven years of relative peace in the lake country.
reported · History of Okeechobee County, Chapter 1
- 1850
Fort Drum was built in the 1850s about seventeen miles north of present-day Okeechobee and operated only briefly before being abandoned.
reported · Fort Drum, Florida - Wikipedia