Editing Belle Glade, Florida (section)

=== Settlement ===
The town of Belle Glade was founded during the [[Florida land boom of the 1920s]].<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.oberlin.edu/library/papers/honorshistory/2001-Gorman/jookjoints/belleglade/introtobelleglade.html
|title=Introduction to Belle Glade|publisher=www.oberlin.edu|access-date=2008-06-08|last=Gorman|first=Juliet| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080514124634/http://www.oberlin.edu/library/papers/honorshistory/2001-Gorman/jookjoints/belleglade/introtobelleglade.html| archive-date= 14 May 2008 | url-status= live}}
</ref> During that period, there were a series of efforts made to put in place drainage systems to reclaim dry land from the Everglades, including land around [[Lake Okeechobee]]. It was hoped that the reclaimed acreage could be put to better use, including agriculture. In 1921 the Florida legislature established an agricultural research station at Belle Glade to study methods of growing crops on reclaimed Everglades land. At that time, there were already 16 settlements on and around Lake Okeechobee, inhabited by around 2,000 people.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tebeau |first1=Charleton W. |title=A History of Florida |date=1971 |publisher=University of Miami Press |location=Coral Gables, Florida |isbn=0-87024-303-9 |pages=348–351 |edition=revised 1980}}</ref>

A settlement, originally named Hillsboro, was built at what is now Belle Glade in 1925.<ref>{{cite web |title=Belle Glade |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Belle-Glade |website=Britannica.com |access-date=30 April 2022}}</ref> In 1926 the Florida East Coast Railway extended its system to Belle Glade, which helped the town's development.<ref>{{cite book |title=Tebeau op cit |page=351}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Monmaney |first1=Terence |title=The Strange Beauty at the Edge of the Everglades |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/edge-everglades-belle-glade-photography-180977940/ |website=Smithsonian Magazine |access-date=20 April 2022}}</ref>