| Official Name: | Fort Denaud, Florida |
| Settlement Type: | Census-designated place |
| Pushpin Map: | Florida#USA |
| Pushpin Label: | Fort Denaud |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Established Title: | Settled |
| Established Title3: | Incorporated |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Area Footnotes: | [1] |
| Area Total Km2: | 53.78 |
| Area Land Km2: | 51.94 |
| Area Water Km2: | 1.84 |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 20.76 |
| Area Land Sq Mi: | 20.05 |
| Area Water Sq Mi: | 0.71 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Total: | 2049 |
| Population Density Km2: | 39.45 |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | 102.18 |
| Timezone: | Eastern (EST) |
| Utc Offset: | −5 |
| Timezone Dst: | EDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | −4 |
| Coordinates: | 26.7422°N -81.51°W |
| Elevation Ft: | 14 |
| Postal Code Type: | ZIP code |
| Postal Code: | 33935 |
| Area Code Type: | Area code |
| Blank Name: | FIPS code |
| Blank Info: | 12-23730[2] |
| Blank1 Name: | GNIS feature ID |
| Blank1 Info: | 2583343[3] |
Fort Denaud is a census-designated place (CDP) and former fort in Hendry County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the CDP was 2,049, up from 1,694 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Clewiston, Florida Micropolitan Statistical Area (μSA).
The fort was situated next to the Caloosahatchee River, east of Fort Myers. The fort was first established in 1837 as a supply depot during the Second Seminole War.[4] It was named in honor of Pierre Denaud, a French-Canadian trapper who had owned the land and had traded skins and hides with the Seminole prior to the Seminole War.[5] The fort was reoccupied and was more tactically significant during the Third Seminole War, where it served as a headquarters for several companies of federal troops and as a middle point on the Caloosahatchee river between Fort Myers and Lake Okeechobee.[6] In December 1854, Brevet Major William Hays took command of three companies from the 2nd Artillery Regiment serving in the area. In January 1855, he moved most of his men to Fort Denaud and established it as his operational base and headquarters. From there, patrols were sent out into Big Cypress Swamp to map out Indian villages as well as along Fisheating Creek. A sketch from 1855 shows that Fort Denaud was connected to a fort opposite the Caloosahatchee called Fort T.B. Adams by a boat bridge.[7] On January 18, 1856, a small army detachment was attacked on the river near Denaud and all but one of the soldiers were killed.[8]
In 1963, the swing-style Fort Denaud Bridge was built across the Caloosahatchee. The bridge and its current approach stands were put into place at mile 108.2 along Route 78A.[9] On the north side of the river is Fort Denaud Cemetery. On the south side of the Fort Denaud Bridge is a historic marker.[10]
The Fort Denaud CDP occupies the northwest corner of Hendry County. It is bounded to the north by Glades County, to the southeast by the city of LaBelle, and to the west by Lee County. Florida State Road 80 forms the southern edge of the CDP; SR 80 leads east 2miles into LaBelle and to Clewiston, and west to Fort Myers.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 54sqkm, of which 52.2sqkm are land and 1.8sqkm, or 3.40%, are water.[2] The Caloosahatchee River flows through the center of the CDP, running west to tidewater at Fort Myers.
A scene from Just Cause, a 1995 suspense crime thriller film directed by Arne Glimcher and starring Sean Connery and Laurence Fishburne, was filmed in Fort Denaud.[11]