They reasoned that the Everglades' rich soil would produce a bountiful harvest for farmers. The New River, Miami and Hillsboro canals are punched through old river channels, and the West Palm Beach canal is built.
Hurricanes leave much of central and southern Florida under water.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers begins to expand the drainage works built by the state a century earlier. Federal engineers enclose what remain of the Everglades in huge earthen dikes.