in 1938, clyde andrews bought most of the "sweetwater groves" land and began to sell it for homes. a group of russian midgets were some of the people who bought the land. they were looking for a place to retire after their career in the circus. they built several homes on the land. these homes were not built for people of normal height. the homes were built smaller than normal so that the group would be comfortable living in them. this caused sweetwater to be called the "midget" community for many years. sweetwater became incorporated in 1941. . the first mayor of the town was the manager of the group of midgets. the town grew to a population of about 500 people by 1959. in 1970, sweetwater was still a small town. it's population was about 3000.