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Glades County,through time.

5 eras · 1901–2026 · every fact sourced · compiled from the sources shown, not yet reviewed by a historian

Start in 1901
Populationfrom 1930

—

Settling the lake's western shore

1901–1920: Settling the lake's western shore

Era 1 · 1901–1920

Settling the lake's western shore

Before the county existed, Palmdale was settled in 1901 by the Florida Fruit Farm, and the Lakeport Colony was founded on Lake Okeechobee's northwestern shore in 1913. James A. Moore founded Moore Haven on the Caloosahatchee River in 1915 as a commercial center for the lake region.

Image shown for this era: Sepia photo of a wooden barn-like building and a two-story frame hotel standing in a field of saw palmetto at Hall City.. 1915 · George Barton Hall Sr., State Library and Archives of Florida (Florida Memory), via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Source

Key moments

  1. Palmdale settled by the Florida Fruit Farm

    Palmdale was settled by the Florida Fruit Farm and had a general store and post office along the railroad.

    Source

    1. Communities, Glades County, Florida (accessed 2026-11-09)

  2. Lakeport Colony founded

    Lakeport, on Lake Okeechobee's northwestern shore, was founded as the Lakeport Colony; its lake dock shipped produce, fish, furs and skins.

    Source

    1. Communities, Glades County, Florida (accessed 2026-11-09)

  3. James A. Moore founds Moore Haven

    Moore Haven was founded on the Caloosahatchee River by James A. Moore as a commercial center for the Lake Okeechobee region.

    Source

    1. Communities, Glades County, Florida (accessed 2026-11-09)
1 more from this era

  1. Railroad reaches Palmdale

    The railroad was extended south from Sebring to serve local citrus growers and ranchers.

    Source

    1. Communities, Glades County, Florida (accessed 2026-11-09)

Sources

  1. Communities, Glades County, Florida (accessed 2026-11-09)
  2. Communities, Glades County, Florida (accessed 2026-11-09)
Correct this era: Settling the lake's western shore

Era 2 · 1921–1929

A new county and the great storms

Glades County was established in 1921 from DeSoto County, with Moore Haven as its seat. In September 1926 the Great Miami Hurricane swept Lake Okeechobee's waters into Moore Haven, killing over 100 people, and the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane brought the greatest loss of life around the lake.

Image shown for this era: Black-and-white 1926 map of Lake Okeechobee and Glades and Hendry counties, marking Moore Haven, Lakeport, Palmdale, Clewiston, La Belle, the Caloosahatchee Canal and rail lines.. 1926 · Joseph Hugh Reese, Florida's Great Hurricane (1926), via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Source

Key moments

  1. Glades County established from DeSoto County

    Glades County was established on April 23, 1921, from part of DeSoto County, one of four counties carved from DeSoto that day.

    Source

    1. Florida Census: DeSoto County, Exploring Florida, Florida Center for Instructional Technology, University of South Florida (accessed 2026-11-09)

  2. County newspaper begins

    The Glades County News began publishing as the Glades County Democrat.

    Source

    1. Moore Haven, Lake Okeechobee News (accessed 2026-11-09)

  3. Glades County Courthouse built

    The Classical Revival Glades County Courthouse in Moore Haven, with its three-story central portico, was built and is now on the National Register.

    Source

    1. Moore Haven, Glades County Tourism Development Council (accessed 2026-11-09)
2 more from this era

  1. 1926 hurricane floods Moore Haven

    The Great Miami Hurricane swept Lake Okeechobee flood waters into Moore Haven, the county seat, killing over 100 people.

    Source

    1. Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928, National Weather Service Miami - South Florida (accessed 2026-11-09)

  2. Okeechobee hurricane

    The 1928 hurricane made landfall in Palm Beach County on September 16, and the greatest loss of life was around Lake Okeechobee, mostly in south-shore towns outside Glades County.

    Source

    1. Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928, National Weather Service Miami - South Florida (accessed 2026-11-09)

Sources

  1. Florida Census: DeSoto County, Exploring Florida, Florida Center for Instructional Technology, University of South Florida (accessed 2026-11-09)
  2. Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928, National Weather Service Miami - South Florida (accessed 2026-11-09)
Correct this era: A new county and the great storms

Era 3 · 1930–1959

Levees, locks and Brighton cattle

After the deadly late-1920s floods, the Corps of Engineers built levees around Lake Okeechobee in the 1930s, and the Moore Haven lock and dam was built in 1935. On the Brighton Reservation, Seminole men began a cattle program in the 1930s, and Moore Haven's Chalo Nitka festival began in 1949.

Image shown for this era: Black-and-white photo of an elderly man in a wide-brimmed hat, tie and cardigan holding a turkey call, standing in front of a large painted bass wearing a crown at the Chalo Nitka festival.. 1952 · State Library and Archives of Florida (Florida Memory, C017193), via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Source

Key moments

  1. Corps of Engineers builds lake levees

    In the 1930s the Corps built 68 miles of levee on the lake's south shore and 16 miles near the City of Okeechobee.

    Source

    1. USACE celebrates completion of the Herbert Hoover Dike restoration project, DVIDS / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District (accessed 2026-11-09)

  2. Moore Haven lock and dam built

    The Moore Haven lock and dam, at the junction of Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River, was constructed; it is one of five locks on the Okeechobee Waterway.

    Source

    1. Moore Haven, Glades County Tourism Development Council (accessed 2026-11-09)

  3. Brighton Seminole cattle herd tops a thousand

    The Seminole cattle program begun at Brighton in the 1930s had over a thousand head of cattle by 1939.

    Source

    1. Spotlight on the Brighton Seminole Reservation, Florida Seminole Tourism (Seminole Tribe of Florida) (accessed 2026-11-09)
2 more from this era

  1. Brighton Indian Day School opens

    Edith and William Boehmer opened the Brighton Indian Day School on the reservation; it ran until 1954.

    Source

    1. Spotlight on the Brighton Seminole Reservation, Florida Seminole Tourism (Seminole Tribe of Florida) (accessed 2026-11-09)

  2. First Chalo Nitka festival

    Moore Haven's Chalo Nitka Festival and Ranch Rodeo began, celebrating ranching heritage and ties with the Seminole Tribe at Brighton.

    Source

    1. Moore Haven, Glades County Tourism Development Council (accessed 2026-11-09)

Sources

  1. USACE celebrates completion of the Herbert Hoover Dike restoration project, DVIDS / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District (accessed 2026-11-09)
  2. Spotlight on the Brighton Seminole Reservation, Florida Seminole Tourism (Seminole Tribe of Florida) (accessed 2026-11-09)
Correct this era: Levees, locks and Brighton cattle

Era 4 · 1960–2004

The Herbert Hoover Dike era

In 1960 the lake's series of levees was renamed the Herbert Hoover Dike, which today is a 143-mile earthen dam around nearly all of Lake Okeechobee. Moore Haven's downtown was listed as a National Register historic district in 1995.

Image shown for this era: Black-and-white documentation photo of the Moore Haven Lock, showing steel lock gates and walkways over still water, with the white locktender's office and trees in the background.. 2000 · Ed Zealy, Historic American Engineering Record (HAER FL-18-A-1), via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Source

Key moments

  1. Levees renamed the Herbert Hoover Dike

    The series of levees around Lake Okeechobee was renamed the Herbert Hoover Dike.

    Source

    1. USACE celebrates completion of the Herbert Hoover Dike restoration project, DVIDS / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District (accessed 2026-11-09)

  2. Moore Haven Downtown Historic District listed

    Moore Haven's downtown was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places.

    Source

    1. Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, Florida Backroads Travel (accessed 2026-11-09)

Sources

  1. USACE celebrates completion of the Herbert Hoover Dike restoration project, DVIDS / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District (accessed 2026-11-09)
  2. Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, Florida Backroads Travel (accessed 2026-11-09)
Correct this era: The Herbert Hoover Dike era

Era 5 · 2005–2026

Dike rehabilitation and today

The Herbert Hoover Dike underwent a rehabilitation project from 2005, with substantial completion celebrated by the Corps of Engineers in January 2023. The 2020 census counted 12,126 people in Glades County.

Image shown for this era: Aerial photo of a patchwork of rectangular farm fields in green, brown and gray near Moore Haven, divided by straight canals and roads and dotted with small clumps of trees.. 2016 · formulanone / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 · CC BY-SA · Source

Key moments

  1. Herbert Hoover Dike rehabilitation completed

    The Corps of Engineers' Jacksonville District celebrated substantial completion of the dike rehabilitation around Lake Okeechobee, under way since 2005.

    Source

    1. USACE celebrates completion of the Herbert Hoover Dike restoration project, DVIDS / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District (accessed 2026-11-09)

Sources

  1. USACE celebrates completion of the Herbert Hoover Dike restoration project, DVIDS / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District (accessed 2026-11-09)
  2. Glades County Profile, Florida Legislature, Office of Economic and Demographic Research (U.S. Census counts) (accessed 2026-11-09)
Correct this era: Dike rehabilitation and today

Then & Now

Glades County, 1921 to 2026

Glades County established from DeSoto County · drag to compare

Black-and-white 1926 map of Lake Okeechobee and Glades and Hendry counties, marking Moore Haven, Lakeport, Palmdale, Clewiston, La Belle, the Caloosahatchee Canal and rail lines.
U.S. 27 through Moore Haven at the 3rd Street exit in late-afternoon light, December 2015: traffic lanes, tall street lights, a large U.S. flag on a pole, palms and a low building at right, and the highway rising toward the river bridge in the distance.
19212026

Then image1926 · Joseph Hugh Reese, Florida's Great Hurricane (1926), via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Source

Now image2015 · formulanone from Huntsville, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · Source

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