Editing Indiantown, Florida (section)

==History==
[[File:Indiantown SAL Depot.jpg|thumb|left|The Indiantown [[Seaboard Air Line Railroad]] depot, now demolished]]
Indiantown was originally established by the [[Seminole]] people as a trading post. Tribes fleeing southwards from the U.S. Army after the [[First Seminole War]] found the area an attractive place to settle due to a relatively higher elevation and ample hunting and fishing spots. It was then settled by white American migrants in the 1890s.<ref name=ghost>{{cite web |url = http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/fl/indiantown.html |title=Indiantown - Ghost Town |access-date=October 31, 2011 }}</ref>

In 1924, Indiantown was transformed when [[S. Davies Warfield]] built an extension of the [[Seaboard Air Line Railroad]] from [[Coleman, Florida]], to [[West Palm Beach, Florida|West Palm Beach]], passing directly through—and stopping in—Indiantown.<ref name="McIver. 198">McIver. 198</ref> Warfield's contributions to Indiantown are memorialized in, among others, Warfield Boulevard (the main route through Indiantown) and Warfield Elementary School.<ref name="McIver. 198" />

Warfield planned to make Indiantown the southern hub of the Seaboard rail line.<ref name="McIver. 198"/><ref name=hpb>{{cite web |url=http://www.historicpalmbeach.com/eliot-kleinberg/2010/12/seminole-inn-not-site-of-royal-honeymoon/ |title=Seminole Inn not site of royal honeymoon |author=Eliot Kleinberg |publisher=palmbeachpost.com |date=December 30, 2010 |access-date=October 31, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120422170428/http://www.historicpalmbeach.com/eliot-kleinberg/2010/12/seminole-inn-not-site-of-royal-honeymoon/ |archive-date=April 22, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Toward that end, he planned a model city, laying out streets and building a school, housing, and a railroad station.<ref name=ghost /><ref name=hpb /> Warfield also built the [[Seminole Inn]], which is now on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name=hpb />

[[File:SeminoleInn.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Seminole Inn]]]]
The [[Florida land boom of the 1920s]] fizzled out after 1926. Warfield died a year later, putting an end to plans to make Indiantown the Seaboard's southern headquarters.<ref name=hpb /> The [[1928 Okeechobee hurricane]] wreaked significant destruction and halted further development.

A serious effort to revitalize the local economy began in 1952 when the Indiantown Development Corporation was sold and restructured as the Indiantown Company. The company was involved in the construction of new water and sewage systems, housing developments, docks making use of the [[St. Lucie River]], and a {{convert|6000|ft|m|adj=on|-1}} airstrip for bringing in small cargo and civilian air traffic.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Indiantown was home to the Circle T Ranch and its Circle T Rodeo Bowl. The 1963 rodeo event drew approximately 15,000 visitors, making it the largest tourist attraction in Florida at the time. The ranch was later bought out and turned into a filming studio.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Matthews Rey|first1=Carol|title=Images of America: Indiantown|date=2014|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|location=Charleston, South Carolina|isbn=978-1-4671-1131-7}}</ref>

Seaboard trains continued to stop at the Indiantown depot through the 1960s, but passenger service to the station was eliminated when [[Amtrak]] took over in 1971. The depot was demolished several years later. The Seminole Inn is virtually all that remains of the 1920s boom.<ref name=ghost />

=== Immigration by Maya Guatemalans ===
During the [[Guatemalan Civil War]], Indiantown and its surrounding area became a destination for [[Indigenous peoples in Guatemala|Indigenous]] [[Maya peoples|Maya]] from [[Guatemala]] who were seeking refuge amid the [[Guatemalan genocide]]. Maya refugees began settling in Indiantown in the 1980s, and grew to a population in the thousands by the 2000s. 

[[The Washington Post|''The Washington Post'']] reported that many individual seeking refuge spoke a [[Mayan languages|Mayan language]] as a [[first language]].<ref name=":1" /> By one estimate in 2010, there were four to five thousand Maya in Indiantown.<ref name=":0" /> Guillermo Carrasco, the chair of the board for the Guatemalan Maya Center in [[Lake Worth, Florida|Lake Worth Beach, Florida]], stated that the town's name, "Indiantown", appealed to indigenous Guatemalan migrants.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Montgomery |first=Madeline |date=2021-10-11 |title=HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH: Lake Worth center serves survivors of Guatemalan genocide |url=https://cbs12.com/news/local/hispanic-heritage-month-lake-worth-center-serves-survivors-of-guatemalan-genocide |access-date=2025-03-19 |website=WPEC |language=en |quote=""It all started in Indiantown. Because the Mayans were considered Indians and they heard the word 'Indiantown,' so they thought that was the community to come," said Guillermo Carrasco, the chairman of the board for the Guatemalan Maya Center."}}</ref>

Currently, the economy of Indiantown relies heavily on seasonal agriculture. The town also continues to make use of its position near the intersections of many major roads to act as a transportation and infrastructure hub. There are also attempts to take advantage of nearby natural wetlands and to revitalize the rodeo in order to draw in tourists.<ref>{{cite web|title=Indiantown Chamber of Commerce|url=https://www.indiantownchamber.com/|website=Indiantown Chamber of Commerce Homepage|access-date=October 22, 2017}}</ref>

During the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], Indiantown was particularly affected by the virus, with 10% of the city testing positive for the virus as of July 2020, among the [[COVID-19 pandemic in Florida|highest in the state]] at the time.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sieff |first=Kevin |date=2020-07-25 |title=For Guatemalans in Florida, essential work leads to a coronavirus outbreak |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/07/25/florida-coronavirus-guatemalan-migrants/ |access-date=2025-03-19 |website=Washington Post |language=en |quote="Officially, 10 percent of the city has tested positive for the virus, among the highest rates in the state."}}</ref>