Okeechobee ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Okeechobee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 US census, the city's population was 5,254.
The Lake Okeechobee area was severely damaged in the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane, the first recorded Category 5 hurricane in the North Atlantic. This was one of the deadliest hurricanes ever to strike the US.
Okeechobee is served by the Okeechobee County Airport.
History
thumb|left|The city hall of the town
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 in the current location of Jersey Mike's Subs. Damages sustained from the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane was the primary reason they stopped bottling in Okeechobee.
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.
The Florida guide described bullfrog breeding in the Okeechobee region:Lakefront Estates, a planned Orthodox Jewish community, is currently under construction on a 550-acre site in Okeechobee.
Geography
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.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (0.96%) is water.
Climate
Okeechobee has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa), with hot, humid summers and warm, drier winters.
Demographics
Racial and ethnic composition
{| class="wikitable"
|+Okeechobee racial composition<br> (Hispanics excluded from racial categories)<br> (NH = Non-Hispanic)<br>
!Race
!Pop 2010
!Pop 2020
!% 2010
!% 2020
|-
|White (NH)
|3,524
|3,196
|62.69%
|60.83%
|-
|Black or African American (NH)
|496
|502
|8.82%
|9.55%
|-
|Native American or Alaska Native (NH)
|58
|40
|1.03%
|0.76%
|-
|Asian (NH)
|46
|71
|0.82%
|1.35%
|-
|Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian (NH)
|2
|2
|0.04%
|0.04%
|-
|Some other race (NH)
|7
|18
|0.12%
|0.34%
|-
|Two or more races/Multiracial (NH)
|70
|165
|1.25%
|3.14%
|-
|Hispanic or Latino (any race)
|1,418
|1,260
|25.23%
|23.98%
|-
|Total
|5,621
|5,254
|
|
|-
|}
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Okeechobee had a population of 5,254. The median age was 40.1 years. 23.1% of residents were under the age of 18 and 20.8% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 92.6 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 89.9 males age 18 and over.
99.8% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.2% lived in rural areas.
There were 1,962 households in Okeechobee, of which 35.9% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 42.5% were married-couple households, 17.8% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 30.7% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 25.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
Demographic estimates
Of the city's population in 2020, 6.7% were under 5 years old. 47.7% of the population was female. There were 383 veterans living in the city and 14% of residents were foreign-born persons.
In 2020, the median household income was $40,149 with a per capita income of $21,449. 21.8% of the population lived below the poverty threshold.
Education
The sole school district in the county is Okeechobee County School District.
Points of interest
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 park, and annual reenactments.
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. The annual festival has continued since then, and is planned for 2023.
Notable people
- Janet Bonnema, civil engineer
- Kutter Crawford, MLB baseball player
- Evan Neal, NFL football player
- Lonnie Pryor, NFL football player
- Reggie Rembert, NFL football player
- Thomas Rooney, U.S. House of Representatives, Florida's 17th congressional district
- Gerald Solomon, New York U.S. House of Representatives
References
External links
- City of Okeechobee
- Evergreen (Okeechobee) Cemetery deceased records and online map at Chronicle Cemetery Map