We are located on the North end of the Big Lake. Lake Okeechobee is a Seminole name meaning Big Water. We are less then 40 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.
Okeechobee County was formed from parts of Osceola, St. Lucie, and Palm Beach Counties on August 7, 1917. A Delegation headed by William Lee Coats known as "Okeechobee Bill" had spent several weeks in Tallahassee working with the legislature for passage of their Bill. Okeechobee City was laid out by Railroad Engineers for The "Okeechobee Company", a branch of the Florida East Coast Railway, which had built the Kissimmee River Valley Extension , entering Okeechobee City in 1914. At the time of the Florida Boom (1920's), the area was advertised as the "Chicago of the South". After the "Bust" it was just a sleepy little county in South Central Florida with a population of about 1500 people.
This area was first settled in the late 1800's with the community of Tantie...later re-named Okeechobee.
The city of Okeechobee was chosen as the county seat and the majority of the population still resides in or near the city limits.
