A Company Town Without A Company

The news came as a total shock to some people, especially in Clewiston. A town that got it start because of US sugar and now some worry the City's future is in question because US Sugar is leaving.

With the official word coming today that US Sugar is in fact leaving town, Many people here in Clewiston are wondering what's next for the city.

It's impossible to talk about Clewiston' past without talking about US sugar. And butch Wilson can't imagine the future without it.

"US Sugar was Clewiston. Clewiston was Clewiston," says Butch Wilson

"It was a shock today because I never anticipated sugar failing like that," he says.

Wilson is now the director of Clewiston's history museum. But for 32 years he worked at us sugar...until he was laid off last year.

"Thats what made sugar what it was. It was the cooperation of the company and the towns people working together" says Wilson

But for the most part-that cooperation seems to be over now. And Clewiston will never be the same. Wilson say the average mill worker can make as much as 50 thousand dollars. Skilled employees could make 80 thousand. Money that's leaving town and these days no one in town, not the Chamber of Commerce, the mayor nor Wilson know what can replace it.

" Don't foresee any industry coming in to this area on the magnitide of us sugar," Wilson says.

But if anything has survived from the city's past Wilson says it's the industrious spirit brought to the town by US Sugar's founders...more than 70 years ago. He that spirit offers hope for the city's future..

And while they wait and hope for the next industry to come into town at least they have Lake Okeechobee. Some folks even this the number one bass fishing destination in the word.

A new US Sugar mill just came online last year...it includes a plant to make ethanol. Some hope that could also provide a future for the city.