History of Broward County Florida
The earliest known inhabitants in the Broward County, Florida region were the Tequesta Indians. These Native Americans first settled along the Miami River and survived by fishing, hunting, and gathering plants but were not farmers. The Tequesta Indians are believed to have created the archeological site known as the Miami Circle.
As the Tequesta Indians disappeared in the mid-1700s and were replaced by others, some white settlers from the Bahamas also began moving into the area. Once the Europeans arrived in the area, they started work on draining the wetlands for settlement.
By 1915, they completed the construction of the Dixie Highway, which was another accomplishment in opening the area up to further development. The Zona settlement was established in 1916 and named after Robert P. Davie, a land developer. He purchased large portions of the reclaimed land in the Everglades to continue with his expansion plans.
After Broward County was incorporated, the land expansion boom began in earnest, with the first hotel opening in Fort Lauderdale in 1919 to encourage tourism. However, one year passed before land developers started dredging more wetlands to make room for further development in the form of island communities.
The development boom continued until 1925 and came to a halt after the 1926 hurricane destroyed large portions of Miami, resulting in an economic downturn. Rebuilding after this year included the opening of the Seminole Indian Reservation, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, the Merle Fogg Airport, and other developments.
After World War Two, the region went through more development, including a population boom as the area transitioned from agriculture to urbanization. In between building cities close to beaches, Dr. Von D. Mizell petitioned Broward County to open a beach for African Americans in 1946.

Broward County Florida’s Namesake
Broward County might have been officially named the Everglades if it hadn’t been for all the hard work done by Napoleon Bonaparte Broward to reclaim swamp areas. Broward served as the Florida governor from 1905 to 1909 and made it his job to reclaim the wetlands of the Everglades for human occupation and development.
Once the land became useful, the European settlers could develop it further. Broward County came into being in 1915 on April 30 by taking almost equal parts of land from Palm Beach and Dada Counties to establish this new county.
Thanks to Governor Broward’s work, this part of Florida became a prosperous agricultural region and later grew into a flourishing residential area for millions of people.