Clewiston, the center of the sugar cane industry in South Florida, is perched along the rim of one of America’s largest lakes, Lake Okeechobee. Designed by famed city planner John Nolan and established as a company town by the U.S. Sugar Company, Clewiston, the “Sweetest Town in America,” sprung to life during the 1920s Florida land boom as the Atlantic Coast Line railroad pushed south.
Clewiston is a Florida Trail Gateway Community.
Florida Trail, Pahokee to Port Mayaca
*** Hiking south of Port Mayaca to Pahokee is currently prohibited due to reconstruction work on the dike. Thru-hikers should use the western route around Lake Okeechobee. *** The sweep of Lake Okeechobee curves away from your perch on the Herbert Hoover Dike as you walk this section of the Florida Trail along the eastern [...]
Fort Center
Explore a pre-Colombian village lost in Florida’s past – and uncovered again in modern times, thanks to the efforts of curious archaeologists – by following this trail in Fisheating Creek Wildlife Management Area. The Fort Center site is documented as possibly the first place in the eastern part of our continent where people crew corn. [...]
LaBelle Nature Park
Explore a lush hammock along the Caloosahatchee River at the LaBelle Nature Park, a quiet passive park in the city of LaBelle. Interpretive signs present information about the trees and plants that grow beneath the shade of the bromeliad-draped live oaks and tall cabbage palms, and there are benches to perch on to watch the [...]
Ortona Mounds
While less than a mile long, this walk in the woods in the ranchlands of Glades County takes you back to a time more than 3,000 years, well before the Calusa paddled the Caloosahatchee in their canoes and settled here too. The original complex is about the same age as the Miami Circle. The Calusa [...]
