Caloosahatchee Canal

The Caloosahatchee Canal, designated C-43, is the dredged upper reach of the Caloosahatchee River in Glades County, Florida. It is part of the Okeechobee Waterway. The canal runs west from Lake Okeechobee at Moore Haven, through Lake Hicpochee, toward Ortona. Lake Hicpochee lies about 10 miles west of Clewiston and is the historical source of the river. The 5-mile section of canal between Lake Hicpochee and Lake Okeechobee allows boats to travel without interruption between the river and the rest of the waterway. In 1881 Hamilton Disston had a canal dredged from Lake Okeechobee to Lake Hicpochee and on through the lakes and wetlands to the west as part of a plan to drain the area. His company also removed the rock ledge below Lake Flirt, which drained that lake. Later state and federal projects widened and deepened the channel.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers controls this stretch with two locks. The Moore Haven Lock and Dam was built in 1935 and renamed the Julian Keen Jr. Lock and Dam in 2021. The Ortona Lock and Dam, built in 1937, is 15.5 miles west of it. The federal channel is 90 feet wide and 8 feet deep. Ortona Lock operates from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the last lockage starting at 4:30 p.m., and about 96 percent of the roughly 9,500 vessels that pass through each year are recreational. Lock operators monitor marine VHF channel 13. The Corps runs a public ramp at the Ortona Locks North Day Use Area. Glades County runs ramps at Alvin L. Ward Park and Old Sportsman's Village, the City of Moore Haven runs the Moore Haven City Marina ramp, and the South Florida Water Management District maintains primitive ramps on the north and south shores of Lake Hicpochee.