Many Floridians in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries believed that if the standing water in the Everglades were removed, family farms could be established on the rich organic soils south of Lake Okeechobee. The idea of drainage received political support from Napoleon Broward in his campaign for governor in 1904, and two years later, when The Everglades moved out from Ft. Lauderdale to commence dredging the North New River Canal, one of the most massive attempts at reclamation in American history had begun. Canals were dug to shunt surplus Lake Okeechobee water directly to the Atlantic. By 1917 four such canals had been completed. Later, particularly after 1950, the earlier emphasis on drainage was succeeded by construction of levees for flood control. Levees were also raised to retain some of the surplus water previously lost to the sea via the drainage canals.
