Hillsboro Canal

Before 1921 the Hillsboro River, one of several "deep streams" in present-day Broward County, was an outlet for sheet flow, allowing freshwater runoff to leave the eastern Everglades. The Hillsboro, like similar water bodies to its south, originated in a series of cypress swamps on the edge of the Everglades that drained eastward, cutting through the Atlantic Coastal Ridge, a mosaic of Florida scrub (ridgy "spruce pine") and South Florida pine flatwoods. Numerous sloughs, as well as depressions, defined the Hillsboro River basin. Starting in 1917, the Hillsboro River was canalized as part of Everglades draining. By 1921 the canal was complete; it proved almost too effective, economically ruining coastal truck farms, and led to saltwater intrusion. A rise in aridity and salt encroachment forced farmers inland, some as far as Lake Okeechobee. == References ==