The city of Sweetwater has a deep and storied history. This city from Florida has roots that go as far back as the 1920s. This was when Miami Pittsburgh Land Company acquired land and started to work on the original plan for making Sweetwater Groves. Unfortunately, the infamous Miami Hurricane happened in1926 and laid waste to all these plans and abruptly ended the highly anticipated development venture.
Clyde Andrews bought most of what was left of Sweetwater Groves in 1938. After acquiring it, he started marketing lots. Initially, most of the people who migrated to Sweetwater were Russian dwarves. They were looking for a safe place to live after retiring from the circus. This led to the creation of numerous mini scaled homes tailor made to match their needs. Because of this Sweetwater is also referred to as “midget community”.
As time went by, an incorporation election took place in this city in 1941. Joe Sanderlin was elected as the first mayor of this town. Almost 15 years later, Sweetwater managed to attract almost five hundred residents. By then, this city had almost 200 homes, service station, grocery store, church, and a town hall. The city also had a police force that was surprisingly run by only two men. There was also a fire department that was run by volunteers. By the 1970s, Sweetwater had more than 3000 residents. This is when the city’s development really started to take place. The famous Florida International University was developed here. The development of two of the biggest expressways in Florida also took place here as more and more people started to relocate to this city.
Currently Sweetwater’s population is close to 15000 people. It has several attractions, such as Santa’s enchanted forest (amusement park), Patricia and Philip Frost art museum, Tropical park, and much more.
