The History of Okeechobee County

The Belle Glade People Around the Lake

The Belle Glade people, also known as the Mayaimi, made their homes around Lake Okeechobee. Their culture lasted from about 500 BC until AD 1700. A Florida Museum writer says their homeland also took in the valley of the Kissimmee River.

Over nearly 2,000 years, they built many kinds of earthworks, including circular ditches. Their homes stood on tree islands, and they ate turtles and plentiful fish, mostly catfish, gar and bowfin.

Sources: Historical Society of Palm Beach County: Florida's Ancient People; Florida Museum of Natural History, Randell Research Center: The Belle Glade Monumental Landscape (Nathan Lawres, March 1, 2018)

The Battle of Okeechobee, 1837

In 1830, President Andrew Jackson approved the removal of eastern tribes to lands beyond the Mississippi River. The Battle of Okeechobee was fought on December 25, 1837, which was Christmas Day. Seminole and Miccosukee people had their camp by the lake's northeast shore. Col. Zachary Taylor commanded 800 soldiers from three infantry regiments, the 1st, 4th and 6th. The warriors' leaders included Holata Micco, also called Billy Bowlegs, along with Sam Jones, Alligator and Wildcat.

The soldiers had to cross muck so thick that they often sank to their thighs. Taylor then sent the 4th Infantry to attack. The Army lost 28 men killed, and 112 more were wounded. Col. Richard Gentry, who led the Missouri Volunteers, was mortally wounded and died soon after the battle.

Taylor became a national hero and was promoted to general. Voters chose him as president in 1848. Of the original 3,000 Seminoles and Miccosukees, an estimated 300 hid on remote Everglades islands for ten years or more.

Sources: Historical Marker Database: The Battle of Okeechobee (Florida State Parks marker); Florida State Parks: Battle of Okeechobee; Florida State Parks: Okeechobee Battlefield Historic State Park History

The Railroad Builds a Town, 1911 to 1916

In October 1911, the town took the name Okeechobee. Engineers for the Florida East Coast Railway laid out the new town. They had it planned by the time the tracks reached the area in 1914. The first passenger train came through in January 1915. When the City of Okeechobee was incorporated on June 4, 1915, the governor appointed Peter Raulerson as its first mayor.

Magi Cable, president of the Okeechobee Historical Society, told FOX 13 in 2023 that the town was once sold to newcomers as the coming Chicago of the South. The town grew with the new rail line and a fast-growing fishing industry. Fish houses stood all along Taylor Creek, Cable said.

Reverend William Troutman and seven others founded the First United Methodist Church in May 1915. The church finished its first building in 1916, on land given by Henry Flagler's Okeechobee Company. By the fall of 1915, the school had so many pupils that a tent held the extra students. Work on the Okeechobee Public School began in 1916.

Sources: Florida Department of State: Peter and Louisiana Raulerson Gravesite historical marker; Amtrak Great American Stations: Okeechobee, FL (OKE); FOX 13 Tampa Bay: Okeechobee celebrates and preserves the past in a state that changes every day (Laura Moody, November 7, 2023); Historical Marker Database: First United Methodist Church of Okeechobee, Florida (state marker F-921); Florida Department of State: Tantie School House #14 historical marker

The 1928 Hurricane and the Dike

The Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928 struck land on September 16, 1928, and an estimated 2,500 people in South Florida were killed. From near the Jupiter Lighthouse, the storm moved west over Palm Beach County to the lake. Many people died when the dike on the lake gave way, and most of them were migrant farm workers. A storm surge 15 to 20 feet high flooded the populated land on the lake's southern side.

Several hundred Black victims were laid in a mass grave at the West Palm Beach pauper cemetery. Zora Neale Hurston drew on the disaster in Their Eyes Were Watching God, a novel she published in 1937. In Okeechobee, the storm destroyed the fishing industry, but cattle ranching kept doing well, FOX 13 reported in 2023.

The Herbert Hoover Dike around the lake was first built in the 1930s. Its embankment runs for 143 miles.

Sources: Florida Department of State: Hurricane of 1928 historical marker; FOX 13 Tampa Bay: Okeechobee celebrates and preserves the past in a state that changes every day (Laura Moody, November 7, 2023); WPTV: Herbert Hoover Dike ribbon-cutting ceremony (January 25, 2023)

Flood Control and the Kissimmee River Canal

A state marker put up for the county in 1961 says that flood control on the lake came about because of the 1928 hurricane. Flooding that lasted a long time in 1947 led people to demand federal help to reduce flood damage.

The Kissimmee River once curved back and forth over 103 miles of central Florida. In the 1960s, the river was made into a channel. The new canal, called C-38, ran between Lake Kissimmee and Lake Okeechobee.

Sources: Florida Department of State: Okeechobee County historical marker; South Florida Water Management District: Kissimmee River

Since 2000: A Battlefield Park, a Dark Sky Park and a Festival

The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed the battle site among America's Most Endangered Historic Places in 2000. The state bought the battlefield on November 30, 2006, with Florida Forever money. A marker put up in 2017 by the Okeechobee Battlefield Friends says Okeechobee Battlefield Historic State Park opened in 2015. Each year, on the final weekend of February, the battle is acted out again at the park.

In 2016, the International Dark Sky Association named Kissimmee Prairie Preserve Florida's first Dark Sky Park, the state park service says. In July 2021, a celebration marked the end of construction on the Kissimmee River Restoration Project. On January 25, 2023, after 18 years of work, the project to repair the dike around the lake was officially completed.

The City of Okeechobee bought the old Okeechobee Primitive Baptist Church in 2022 to preserve it. In December 2022, people in Okeechobee were praising a new bronze sculpture of a cattle drive. The city showed it in Flagler Park as its new community arts project. On Friday, March 20, 2026, the Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival was under way. The four-day festival at Sunshine Grove had come back after a two-year break.

Sources: Florida State Parks: Battle of Okeechobee; Florida State Parks: Okeechobee Battlefield Historic State Park History; Historical Marker Database: The Okeechobee Battlefield Historic State Park (Okeechobee Battlefield Friends marker, 2017); Florida State Parks: Okeechobee Battlefield Manager's Message; Florida State Parks: Dark Sky Designation; South Florida Water Management District: Kissimmee River; WLRN (Associated Press): After 18 years, $1.5B dike repair done at Florida's Lake O (Curt Anderson, January 25, 2023); Historical Marker Database: Okeechobee Primitive Baptist Historical Site; ABC 17 News (WPBF report via CNN Newsource): Bronze cattle drive sculpture in Okeechobee County getting golden reviews (December 16, 2022); WPTV: 'A lot safer': Safety is top priority at Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival (Tyler Hatfield, March 20, 2026)