Driving around the sleepy streets of LaBelle it’s easy to understand why people sometimes get confused about why the small agricultural community was known as “The Town Where Time Stands Still.” Located along the banks of the Caloosahatchee River flowing from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico, the community was named for Laura and Belle Hendry — the daughters of pioneer cattleman Francis A. Hendry for whom the County is named. Americans first settled there around the Civil War. Then Everglades Reclamation and channelization of the river brought trappers, cowboys and steamboats — not to mention famous visitors like Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and Henry Ford. After Hendry County was formed in 1923 and the courthouse was built, the clock tower was repeatedly struck by lightning. If that weren’t enough of a challenge for the mechanism, the clock’s gears were also continually being jammed by the droppings of owls and bats roosting in the tower. Time stood still in LaBelle for decades until the courthouse clock was fully repaired in 1975 in honor of the national Bicentennial celebration. Today, LaBelle is known for producing vegetables, citrus, cattle, and the annual Swamp Cabbage Festival.
Small: 6” x 7.5” – $100.00 | Medium: 24” x 30” – $200.00 | Large: 36” x 45” – $450.00