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Glades County, is north of the Everglades. It was one of several counties carved from DeSoto in the partition of 1921. It was almost named "Muck County." Following a referendum the county seat of the new county was located at Moore Haven. The town had been founded in 1916 by James A. Moore. Among its claims to fame is Marian Newhall Horwitz O'Brien, said to be the first female mayor in the United States. Original meetings of the county government were in space provided by the county school board. Much of Moore Haven and the surrounding area was destroyed in a catastrophic 1926 hurricane. The present courthouse, designed by E. C. Hosford, dates from 1928. Moore Haven is located on the southwest shoreline of Lake Okeechobee. Moore Haven was often called "Little Chicago", reflecting its status as a significant boom town. It was ideally located at the apex of Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee Canal. and infrastructure. Moore Haven is home to the Annual Chalo Nitka Festival, which is held the first weekend in March. A large bridge that crosses the Caloosahatchee River was completed in the last 10 years. The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 dramatically altered the landscape of the area. The storm surge from the lake caused widespread death and destruction, sometimes literally relocating houses to the opposite side of the river. The town might have recovered, but it was hit not long after by the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane. This decimated areas that had escaped damage in 1926. The Okeechobee hurricane, or Hurricane San Felipe Segundo, of 1928 was a deadly hurricane that struck the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Florida in September of the 1928 Atlantic hurricane season. In south Florida at least 2,500 were killed when a storm surge from Lake Okeechobee breached the dike surrounding the lake, flooding an area covering hundreds of square miles. In total, the hurricane killed at least 4,078 people and caused around $100 million ($1 billion 2008 US dollars) in damages over the course of its path. To prevent a
recurrence of disasters like this one and the Great Miami Hurricane
of 1926, the Florida State Legislature created the Okeechobee Flood
Control District, which was authorized to cooperate with the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers in flood control undertakings. After a personal inspection
of the area by President Herbert Hoover, the Corps drafted a
new plan which provided for the construction of floodway channels, control
gates, and major levees along Lake Okeechobee's shores. A long term
system was designed for the purpose of flood control, water conservation,
prevention of saltwater intrusion, and preservation of fish and wildlife
populations. One of the solutions was the construction of the Herbert
Hoover Dike.
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