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Moore Haven,through time.

6 eras · 1881–2026 · every fact sourced · compiled from the sources shown, not yet reviewed by a historian

Start in 1881
Populationfrom 1990

—

Canals and the lone cypress

1881–1914: Canals and the lone cypress

Era 1 · 1881–1914

Canals and the lone cypress

In 1881 Hamilton Disston bought four million acres from the state, and Captain Menge's dredges dug the Three Mile Canal linking Lake Okeechobee to the Caloosahatchee. A flag-topped cypress tree was the only marker for the canal, at the spot that later became Moore Haven, and surveyor John W. Henderson was paid in land along the lake's southwest shore.

Image shown for this era: Detail of an 1883 map of South Florida with Disston company lands shaded blue: Manatee County with Pine Level, Arcadia and Fort Ogden along Peace Creek, Fort Thompson and Fort Denaud on the Caloosahatchee, and a canal running east to Lake Okeechobee.. 1883 · F. (Frederick) Bourquin, 1883; State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Source

Sources

  1. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, National Park Service (accessed 2026-11-09)
  2. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, National Park Service (accessed 2026-11-09)
Correct this era: Canals and the lone cypress

Era 2 · 1915–1920

Boom town and the first woman mayor

James A. Moore founded the town in 1915 and had it platted in 1916, and it quickly became the supply center for farms and ranches around the lake. Moore Haven was incorporated in 1917 with a charter that let women vote and hold office, elected Marian Newhall Horwitz mayor, and gained a rail line in 1918.

Image shown for this era: Newspaper photograph of Marian Newhall Horwitz, elected mayor of Moore Haven in 1917, as printed in the New York Times on July 29, 1917.. 1917 · International Film Service, published in the New York Times, July 29, 1917 (Library of Congress scan), via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Source

Key moments

  1. James A. Moore founds Moore Haven

    Seattle investor James A. Moore bought the Henderson tract and laid out a town beside the lone cypress tree that marked the canal from Lake Okeechobee to the Caloosahatchee River. He named it Moore Haven and promoted it as a farming paradise.

    Source

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

  2. Gram Building goes up on Avenue J

    Danish-trained builder Frederick V. Gram designed and built one of the first commercial buildings, which held the town's first drug store.

    Source

    1. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, National Park Service (accessed 2026-11-09)

  3. Town plat drawn

    James A. Moore commissioned surveyor Thomas E. Frederick to plat a town of about one square mile, with lettered east-west streets and numbered north-south streets.

    Source

    1. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Moore Haven Residential Historic District, National Park Service (accessed 2026-11-09)
3 more from this era

  1. Moore Haven incorporated

    Moore Haven was incorporated as a city with a charter that gave women the vote and the right to hold office, three years before the 19th Amendment.

    Source

    1. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, National Park Service (accessed 2026-11-09)

  2. Marian Newhall Horwitz elected mayor

    At the town's first city election, Marian Newhall Horwitz was elected mayor, described in the National Register nomination as the first woman mayor in Florida and the southern United States.

    Source

    1. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, National Park Service (accessed 2026-11-09)

  3. First train arrives

    The Atlantic Coast Line extended a line from Palmdale, and rail service made Moore Haven the center of a catfish industry on Lake Okeechobee.

    Source

    1. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, National Park Service (accessed 2026-11-09)

Sources

  1. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, National Park Service (accessed 2026-11-09)
  2. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, National Park Service (accessed 2026-11-09)
Correct this era: Boom town and the first woman mayor

Era 3 · 1921–1925

Fire, floods and a new county seat

A 1921 fire destroyed much of the business district, and floods covered the area for most of 1922. Moore Haven became the seat of the new Glades County, adopted a new charter in 1923 and kept building through 1925.

Image shown for this era: Black-and-white snapshot dated 12/7/22 and captioned Looking East From New Bridge - Moorehaven, showing the end of a steel truss swing bridge over the canal and flat open pasture with grazing horses beyond.. 1922 · State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory (floridamemory.com/items/show/335387), via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Source

Key moments

  1. County seat of the new Glades County

    Glades County was created and Moore Haven was chosen as its county seat. The county used school board space until its first courthouse was built.

    Source

    1. Glades County Courthouse - Moore Haven, Courthouses of the USA (accessed 2026-11-09)

  2. Fire sweeps Avenue J

    A fire that began in a rooming house destroyed twenty-two businesses and six homes; the town had no fire truck, and most buildings were never rebuilt.

    Source

    1. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, National Park Service (accessed 2026-11-09)

  3. Months of flooding

    Floods covered the area from May to the end of the year, driving many residents away; those who stayed reopened in makeshift corrugated-iron buildings.

    Source

    1. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, National Park Service (accessed 2026-11-09)
1 more from this era

  1. Glades County Democrat founded

    The county newspaper began as the Glades County Democrat; it later became the Glades County News.

    Source

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

Sources

  1. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, National Park Service (accessed 2026-11-09)
  2. Glades County Courthouse - Moore Haven, Courthouses of the USA (accessed 2026-11-09)
Correct this era: Fire, floods and a new county seat

Era 4 · 1926–1934

The hurricanes

The September 1926 hurricane swept Lake Okeechobee over the town, covering it with ten feet of water, and Moore Haven gradually lost its place as the commercial center of the Everglades. The 1928 Okeechobee hurricane flooded the town again.

Image shown for this era: Black-and-white map printed in a 1926 book on the hurricane, showing Lake Okeechobee with Moore Haven at the head of the Caloosahatchee Canal, and Lakeport, Palmdale, Clewiston and La Belle nearby.. 1926 · Joseph Hugh Reese, Florida's Great Hurricane (1926), via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Source

Key moments

  1. Hurricane floods Moore Haven

    The hurricane drove Lake Okeechobee over the town, covering it with ten feet of water and destroying buildings, livestock and crops. Death tolls differ by source.

    Source

    1. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, National Park Service (accessed 2026-11-09)

Sources

  1. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, National Park Service (accessed 2026-11-09)
  2. Effects of the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane in Florida, Wikipedia (accessed 2026-11-09)
Correct this era: The hurricanes

Era 5 · 1935–1959

Locks, the woman's club and Chalo Nitka

The Moore Haven lock and dam on the Okeechobee Waterway was built in 1935, and in 1938 the Moore Haven Woman's Club bought a house that served as the county's only public library. Chalo Nitka began in 1949 to celebrate the paving of a main street, and in 1954 U.S. 27 was moved north of the old downtown.

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. Moore Haven lock and dam built

    The lock at the junction of Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee became one of five locks on the 152-mile Okeechobee Waterway.

    Source

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

  2. Woman's club opens the county's library

    The Moore Haven Woman's Club bought the Marion George house on Avenue K as its clubhouse; for five years it was the only public library in Glades County.

    Source

    1. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Moore Haven Residential Historic District, National Park Service (accessed 2026-11-09)

  3. First Chalo Nitka festival

    Chalo Nitka, Seminole for "big bass," began as a celebration of a newly paved main street and became the county's yearly festival and rodeo.

    Source

    1. Moore Haven, Lake Okeechobee News (accessed 2026-11-09)
1 more from this era

  1. U.S. 27 rerouted around downtown

    The highway was moved north to a new bridge over the Three Mile Canal, and many businesses left the historic downtown for the new route.

    Source

    1. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, National Park Service (accessed 2026-11-09)

Sources

  1. Moore Haven, Glades County Tourism Development Council (accessed 2026-11-09)
  2. Moore Haven, Lake Okeechobee News (accessed 2026-11-09)
Correct this era: Locks, the woman's club and Chalo Nitka

Era 6 · 1960–2026

County seat on the waterway

The lake's levees were renamed the Herbert Hoover Dike in 1960, and the town's historic downtown was listed on the National Register in 1995. Moore Haven remains the county seat of Glades County, and the dike rehabilitation that began in 2005 built a seepage barrier running to west of Moore Haven.

Image shown for this era: The broad, leafy lone cypress tree in Lone Cypress Park in Moore Haven's downtown historic district, with stone steps, a state historical marker and a picnic pavilion under a clear blue sky.. 2010 · Ebyabe / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA · Source

Key moments

  1. Downtown listed on the National Register

    The Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, with its 1916-1939 commercial buildings and Lone Cypress Park, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

    Source

    1. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Moore Haven Residential Historic District, National Park Service (accessed 2026-11-09)

Sources

  1. USACE celebrates completion of the Herbert Hoover Dike Restoration Project, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District (DVIDS) (accessed 2026-11-09)
  2. USACE celebrates completion of the Herbert Hoover Dike Restoration Project, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District (DVIDS) (accessed 2026-11-09)
  3. Moore Haven, Florida, City of Moore Haven (accessed 2026-11-09)
Correct this era: County seat on the waterway

Then & Now

Moore Haven, 1915 to 2026

James A. Moore founds Moore Haven · drag to compare

Detail of an 1883 map of South Florida with Disston company lands shaded blue: Manatee County with Pine Level, Arcadia and Fort Ogden along Peace Creek, Fort Thompson and Fort Denaud on the Caloosahatchee, and a canal running east to Lake Okeechobee.
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.
19152026

Then image1883 · F. (Frederick) Bourquin, 1883; State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, 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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This timeline is compiled from the public records cited on each era and event. Every quote is checked against its source automatically, and items marked Reviewed have also been checked by a person. Images are public domain or openly licensed, each with its credit. If you know something we’ve missed or got wrong, or you hold records of your own, we’d like to hear from you.

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