Florida History: Fort Lauderdale's ketchup factory ... and Progresso
― By Jane Feehan ∙ Fort Lauderdale was a major vegetable shipping center during the early to mid 1900s, especially after the New River was connected to Lake Okeechobee via the North New River Canal in 1912. One of the most profitable crops in the area was tomatoes, and so it followed that the city also served as the site of a large ketchup factory. ∙ Harbauer Company, a Toledo-based manufacturer of “high grade condiments,” leased the former Fort Lauderdale Lumber Company for four [...].
