09/24/2026
South of Lake Okeechobee the land goes flat and green for miles, and this is sugar country. The towns around Clewiston and Belle Glade grew up around the cane, and for a long stretch of the last century life here followed the fields as surely as the seasons. 🌾
The scene was its own world. Modest company houses clustered near the mills, dirt roads ran straight between endless rows of cane, and royal palms lined the way toward smokestacks rising in the distance. Work was hard and the days were long, but there was a tight sense of community among the families who kept the harvest moving year after year. This was the heartland version of Florida, far from the beaches and the postcards.
So much has shifted in this region since then, in the land, the water, and the way of life. Looking back at these old fields is a way of remembering the people who built something lasting out of the muck and the heat. 🌅
Do you have roots in Florida's sugar country, and what do you remember most? 💭
