Broward County ( , ) is a county in the southeastern part of Florida, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's second-most populous county after Miami-Dade County and the 17th-most populous in the United States, with over 1.94 million residents as of the 2020 census. Its county seat and largest city is Fort Lauderdale, which had a population of 182,760 as of 2020. Broward County is one of the three counties that make up the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to 6.14 million people in 2020. It is also one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the entire country. The county has 31 municipalities (including 24 incorporated cities) and many unincorporated areas. It's also Florida's seventh-largest county in terms of land area, with . Broward County's urbanized area occupies 427.8 square miles of land. The largest portion of the county is the Conservation Area that extends to the county's Western border. The conservation area is 796.9 square miles and consists of wetlands. At its widest points, the County stretches approximately 50.3 miles east to west and approximately 27.4 miles from north to south, averaging 5 to 25 feet in elevation. History Native people The earliest evidence of Native American settlement in the Miami region came from about 12,000 years ago. The first inhabitants settled on the banks of the Miami River, with the main villages on the northern banks. The inhabitants at the time of first European contact were the Tequesta people, who controlled much of southeastern Florida, including what is now Miami-Dade County, Broward County, and the southern part of Palm Beach County. The Tequesta Indians fished, hunted, and gathered the fruit and roots of plants for food, but did not practice any form of agriculture. They buried the small bones of the deceased with the rest of the body, and put the larger bones in a box for the village people to see. The Tequesta are credited with making the Miami Circle. Founding of Broward Broward County was founded on April 30, 1915. It was intended to be named Everglades County, but then-Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives Ion Farris amended the bill that established the county to name it in honor of Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, governor of Florida from 1905 to 1909. Throughout his term as governor, Broward championed Everglades drainage and was remembered for his campaign to turn the Everglades into