Okeechobee, Florida

Okeechobee is close to the site of the Battle of Lake Okeechobee, a major battle of the Second Seminole War, fought between forces under the command of Zachary Taylor and Seminole warriors resisting forced removal to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River in the 1830s. (This territory was later admitted as the state of Oklahoma in 1907.)

From 1918 to 1929 the international drink company Coca-Cola had a plant to bottle their drinks in Okeechobee Across the road from various businesses.The reason they stoped bottling In Okeechobee is mostly because of the Okeechobee Hurricane In 1928.

In the 1930s, Okeechobee was the commercial center for the surrounding area, shipping hundreds of train cars of winter vegetables annually. It had poultry farms, a catfish shipping plant, and a bullfrog breeding industry.[8]

The Florida guide described bullfrog breeding in the Okeechobee region:

Frog legs, or 'saddles,' bring high prices in the winter when frogs usually hibernate and are difficult to capture. Frog farmers enclose bottom lands, ponds, or swamps; as frogs live on insects, breeders strew the runs with rotting meat to attract blowflies. Some plant flowers and shrubs to lure bugs, and occasionally install electric lights to attract moths, beetles, and other nocturnal insects. A female frog lays from 10 to 30 thousand eggs a year; tadpoles appear from 60 to 90 days later, but frogs are seldom marketed before they are two years old. [9]

— Federal Writers'Project, "Part III: The Florida Loop", Florida: A Guide to the Southernmost State (1947)

As of the 2022 census,[11] the city of Okeechobee had a population of 5,432 and 1,955 households.

Of the city's population, 6.7% were under 5 years old, 22.5% were under 18 years old, and 17.0% were 65 years and over. 47.7 of the population was female.

52.7% of the population was white, 9.6% was black or African American, 0.2% was American Indian or Alaska Native, 3.1% was Asian, 5.7% was two or more races, and 31.7% was Hispanic or Latino.

There were 383 veterans living in the city and 14% were foreign-born persons.

The median household income (in 2021 dollars) was $40,149 with a per capita income of $21,449. 21.8% of the population lived below the poverty threshold.

Okeechobee is located just north of Lake Okeechobee. Taylor Creek flows through the east side of the town. The area is served by US routes 98 and 441 and state routes 70, 700 and 15.[12]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.2 square miles (11 km²), of which 4.1 square miles (11 km²) is land and 0.04 square miles (0.10 km²) (0.96%) is water.

On 25 December 1837, Lake Okeechobee became the site of an important battle in the Second Seminole War, fought between a number of Seminole Native American groups, the United States government, and allied militias. The battlefield is now the site of a 145-acre (0.59 km²) park, and annual reenactments.[15]

In 2016, the Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival was organized for the first time. This multi-day, multi-genre music festival attracted approximately 30,000 people to the city in its first year.[16] The annual festival has continued since then, and is planned for 2023.

• Janet Bonnema, civil engineer[17]
• Kutter Crawford, baseball player
• Lonnie Pryor, football player
• Reggie Rembert, football player
• Thomas Rooney, U.S. House of Representatives, Florida's 17th congressional district
• Evan Neal, football player

• City of Okeechobee