DO YOU HAVE A MEMORY TO SHARE? Family vignettes, childhood memories or "The Rest of the Story" are delightful ways to share our unique backgrounds with one another. It doesn't have to be long, or something changing the course of history - just a gem you cherish.

MILKING TIME The soft yellow light of a kerosene lantern, and warm, frothy milk in a tin cup.  The barn cats anticipated getting their share, too - with much whisker-licking of spattered faces.

LaBelle Trivia

(or little known facts about the great city of LaBelle)

1. Did you know when Henry Ford first arrived in LaBelle it was by steamboat?
2. There is a three-day free dockage at LaBelle’s public boat dock just west of the Caloosahatchee River bridge?
3. Hendry County was established in 1923 after being separated from Lee County and LaBelle became the county seat.
4. Hendry County with a total of 1,163 square miles – not including a sliver of Lake Okeechobee – is Florida’s 8^th largest county in land area.
5. In the early 1800’s Pierre Denaud, a French Canadian trapper, set up a trading post on the Caloosahatchee River west of present day LaBelle.  In the winter of 1838 during the Second Seminole War, Col. Persifor F. Smith and his company of Lousiana Volunteers chose Denaud’s trading post as the site of a supply depot which was named Fort Denaud.
6. LaBelle’s first school, located on the grounds that now house Edward A. Upthegrove Elementary School, was a chickee hut with palm-thatched roof opened in 1891.
7. The first high school graduation in LaBelle was held in 1917.
8. The first hotel built in the LaBelle area was the Thompson Park Hotel in 1903.  The more widely known Everett Hotel was built in 1910; it served as Hendry County’s first courthouse when the county was created.  Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone were frequent guests at the Everett Hotel.
9. LaBelle’s first bridge across the Caloosahatchee originally ran east and west until the river was straightened in the mid 1930’s.
10. The first LaBelle Swamp Cabbage Festival – the brain-child of the LaBelle Jaycees – was held in January 1967.
11. In 1924 the spelling of LaBelle was officially changed, through petition, from the original “Labelle”.
12. Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone came to LaBelle to experiment with goldenrod as a source for synthetic rubber, and Henry Ford planted bamboo in the hopes of producing cheap filament material for Edison’s incandescent light bulbs.
13. The small tower on the old Hendry County Courthouse roof used to have a bell until the County Commissioners donated it to the Felda Baptist Church in the early 1950’s.
14. LaBelle was once known as the “Town Where Time Stands Still” because the clock in the courthouse tower was repeatedly struck by lightning and its gears were continually jammed by the droppings from owls and bats that used the open tower as a roost.  Finally, the clock works were removed and the clock remained handless until 1975 when it was restored as part of LaBelle’s Bicentennial Celebration. 
15. The Great Fire of 1928 started in the Royal Palm Hotel on Bridge Street; the smoke and glow from its flames could be seen as far away as Fort Myers.  Fire trucks from Fort Myers and other surrounding communities came to help but found their hose fittings did not match LaBelle’s fire hydrants.  By the time the blaze was finally brought under control nearly half the businesses in downtown LaBelle were destroyed.
16. Flooding of the Caloosahatchee River plagued the area until the Army Corps of Engineers continuing widening, deepening and straightening of the river from the 1930’s to the 1960’s finally alleviated the problem.  The last serious flood in LaBelle occurred in 1936; although, there were less severe floods in 1947, 1951 and 1953.
17. LaBelle’s Barron Library, across from the City Boat Dock, was built on the site of the Everett Hotel that had housed LaBelle’s first lending library.
18. The two storey portion of the historic Forrey Building was the first private concrete block structure built in LaBelle.
19. LaBelle’s original source of electricity – primarily for lights – was from E. E. Goodno’s ice plant at Fort Thompson; the generator was turned off every night at 9 o’clock because no decent person should be up after that time!
20. Although almost 21% of its population is over the age of 65, the median age of a LaBelle resident is 36.   

The Gift Shop at the LaBelle Heritage Museum offers Florida-themed books and souvenirs.

 New members receive a $5.00 discount on their first purchase from the Gift Shop. Use the "Membership Form" page or call 863-674-0034 to become a member and choose your gift.

The Museum is scheduled to be open Thursday and Friday afternoons from 2 to 5 pm, other times by appointment.

"LIFE IS LIKE A BOX OF CRACKERS - SOME ARE CRUNCHIER THAN OTHERS"

"MOST OF LIFE'S PROBLEMS CAN BE FIXED WITH WD-40 OR DUCT TAPE.  IF IT DOESN'T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40.  IF IT MOVES AND SHOULDN'T, USE THE DUCT TAPE."