This Miami-area city was founded by Russian circus dwarves. Get the backstory

Most South Florida towns were founded by people from faraway places, but few of those pioneers were as exotic as the circus performers who helped found the town of Sweetwater.

The Royal Russian Midget Troupe was a group of 20 little people who performed throughout Germany, Japan and Russia before coming to the United States in 1932.

By 1938, the troupe of dwarves had begun to spend its winters in South Florida. While traveling to their headquarters on the west coast of Florida in 1939, the troupe’s car overheated on the Tamiami Trail near Southwest 107th Avenue.

The troupe fell in love with the area, once a profitable field known as Sweetwater Groves that had been wiped out by the hurricane of 1926.

Twelve troupe members decided to settle in the area. They befriended Clyde H. Andrews, a Coral Gables developer who had moved to the area believing that Miami-Dade County eventually would expand westward.

In 1941, Andrews invited 30 of his friends, 12 of them from the troupe, to gather on his front lawn and officially incorporate the town of Sweetwater.

Sweetwater today has a population of about 20,000.