The early history of Okeechobee might read like something out of a Western novel. First came the Indians (Hitichi-speaking Miccasukee Seminoles) who built villages near Lake Okeechobee from Brighton and Fort Drum as far south as the Tamiani Trail. Next came fishermen and trappers, then lumbermen and turpentine makers. But when Col. Zachary Taylor and his men came to the area on Christmas Day in 1837 to fight Chief Osceola in the Battle of Okeechobee, there were few non-Indian settlers. Today, the Brighton Seminole Indian Reservation covers 35,000 acres of rich land that is still farmed, hunted and fished by the Seminoles. The Reservation boasts a Rodeo Arena, a casino and modern centers for education and sports.
Zachary Taylor established Fort Basinger and Fort Drum to maintain a military presence in the area, but the Army closed and abandoned both forts by 1860. Ten years later the cattle industry had its earliest beginnings when the three Parker Brothers arrived. John, Streaty and Henry Parker drove their cattle in to graze on the large areas of open grassland. Henry married a widow, and he helped her son, Henry Allen Holmes, build a rich cattle empire. The growth of the cattle industry was not always smooth sailing, as the rough and tumble cowboys had an Old West flavor of their own. Today, the cattle industry continues to be a strong part of the area’s economy.
Just before the turn of the century, Peter and Louisiana Chandler Raulerson moved to Okeechobee City. They arrived in 1896 and lived in a rough shelter for three years before building a log cabin home, which still stands and is occupied by one of their descendants. The Raulersons finally built a home facing what is now Parrott Avenue and now is home to Ranch Travel and Jeannette’s Interiors. When the first part-time post office was opened in 1902, the location was called Tantie, after a particularly well-liked schoolmistress, but by 1911, it was decided that the growing town should be called Okeechobee, taken from the Seminole Hitchiti words “Oka” meaning “big” and “Chobi” meaning “water.”
The huge lake that inspired the name is the second largest in the entire United States, with only Lake Michigan being larger. Peter Raulerson is credited with the founding of Tantie, now the city of Okeechobee. The first post office was located in his home, with mail stored under his bed until it could be carried each week to Basinger. The schoolhouse built in 1909 still stands and has been moved to U.S. 98 North, where it now is part of the Historical Museum. Okeechobee was becoming more and more civilized.
Clifford Clements, a hunter, moved to the area in 1897, married Adline Raulerson and became the area’s first commercial fisherman. He also started a school, built a two-story store and called the settlement Utopia. Dan McCarthy is another early community leader who arrived in the early 1900’s. He established the Okeechobee Hardware and Furniture Company in 1915, and it is now the second oldest continuously operating business in town. He also built homes for the residents, two of which still remain standing. Park Drugs, the oldest business in Okeechobee, was started by a doctor couple named Darrow.
The fishing industry grew rapidly until some four boxcar-loads of catfish were being shipped north up Taylor Creek each week. The area’s cattle, lumber and turpentine businesses continued to grow, until Florida East Coast Railroad determined that it was feasible to extend its service to the northern bank of Lake Okeechobee. The railroad formed the Model Land Company to design the street plan for the growing city, and it was that firm’s foresight that inspired the broad avenues that were unusual in that day.
In 1915, Florida East Coast Railroad’s vice-president, nicknamed the young city “the Chicago of the South.” The railroad’s president, J.R. Parrott, is still remembered in Okeechobee by Parrott Avenue. That year the first passenger train arrived, and Okeechobee was incorporated as a city. 1915 also marked the establishment of the Okeechobee Call newspaper, which continues to publish as the Okeechobee News.
As the area continued to grow, residents wanted to have their own county so that they wouldn’t have to travel to the coast to take care of legal matters. A committee of residents drafted a bill and went to the Florida legislature to establish Okeechobee County, acquiring a total of 771 square miles of Osceola, St. Lucie and Palm Beach Counties. One of the leaders of this effort was “Okeechobee Bill” Coats, the first representative to the state legislature from the new county.
As the city continued to grow, Miami architect George Gaynor Hyde was commissioned to design a courthouse in 1925. The building was of Mediterranean or Greco-Roman design with an open loggia. The county ran out of funds during the construction so that the original dome designed for the two-story structure had to be eliminated. The new courthouse opened in 1927, and it housed most of the important governmental offices of the community.
The Freeman Building and the Markham Building as well as the former Okeechobee High School were all built by George Rogers in 1926. The Southland Hotel, built in 1925-26, was another important structure in the community until it was razed in 1968. The loss of this important structure is one of the motivations behind the creation of Okeechobee Main Street, to encourage renovation and restoration of buildings important to the city’s history. Its loss is marked in the logo for Okeechobee Main Street, where the lamplight is seen in front of the famous Southland Hotel.
Two major hurricanes hit the area in the 1920’s. The first was in 1926, but the more serious storm hit in 1928. Many of the smaller lakeside villages were wiped out, and more two thousand lives were lost. The huge lake surged over the banks, and with it large numbers of fish were destroyed, eliminating the commercial fishing industry for many decades. President-elect Herbert Hoover came to see the devastation in 1929, and his concern for the area’s future led to plans by the Army Corps of Engineers to construct a dike around the lake, which was finally completed in 1969.
The devastation of the Hurricane of 1928 slowed the area’s development. In 1960 the population of Okeechobee County was just 6,424. Today the city of Okeechobee is nearing 6,000 full-time residents, with many more “snowbirds” swelling that number substantially during the winter season. In 2004, Okeechobee County was reported to have 39,988 full-time residents. Compared to many areas of the Sunshine State, growth in Okeechobee County has been relatively slow, but the population consists of many loyal long-time residents, some of whom are descendents of the early settlers of the area.
The huge Lake Okeechobee continues to be a tourist attraction, and experts anticipate continuous growth as population in coastal areas becomes too dense and more people seek safety by moving inland. The Lake is a part of the Okeechobee Waterway, which runs from Fort Myers on the west coast up the Caloosahatchee River, through the Lake and up the St. Lucie Canal to Stuart on the Atlantic Coast. The Lake also is the lifeline of water for South Florida. The Hoover Dike makes the area particularly attractive as it shelters residents from flood damage during hurricane season.
The city of Okeechobee is the only incorporated municipality in the county. Okeechobee Main Street is dedicated to preserving the historic buildings that have been built through the years. Plans for future projects, such as the refurbished park along Park Street and the renovation of the old county jail, which first opened in 1964, as well as a new impetus to develop new manufacturing and other business in the community, make this effort even more vital and meaningful.