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DESTIN
HISTORY
Welcome
to the world’s Luckiest Fishing Village.
Fifty years ago all there was to see from Destin to Panama City was
pristine sand dunes, beautiful emerald green water and an abundance of wild
life. Destin’s historical
heritage began with a Spanish explorer named Don Francisco Tapia who surveyed
the Florida coast in 1693 in search of fresh water.
He drew the first known map of the East Pass and its surrounding areas.
In
1830 Captain Leonard Destin, a New England seafarer and Destin’s namesake,
founded the fishing village known as Destin and pioneered the fishing industry.
In 1845, he was the first white man to settle in the area.
At that time Destin was home to several tribes of Indians.
Captain Destin brought people to the area by offering fishing jobs to
young men. The total population of
Destin back then was not more than 100 people.
Out of these 100 residents everyone was employed in the fishing industry
except approximately six families.
Destin’s
East Pass is the only waterway connecting the Choctawhatchee Bay to the Gulf of
Mexico for approximately 60 miles in either direction.
Pensacola to the west and Panama City to the east also have waterway
connections from the Bay to the Gulf. Originally, the Gulf of Mexico and the
Destin Harbor did not connect to the Choctawhatchee Bay in this area.
This posed an extreme danger of flooding to the fishing fleet.
In 1926, the Melvin, the Marler and the Destin families took on their
largest task to date. Four men cut
a drainage ditch two feet wide across Okaloosa Island using only shovels.
Within two hours, the ditch was over a 100 yards wide.
That hand dug trench opened a torrent of rushing water that created the
East Pass into what you see today. The
Army Corp of Engineers dredges portions of the East Pass periodically to keep
the water deep enough for the boats to move freely back and forth.
Just
north of the Destin Bridge is known to all the locals as Crab Island.
At one time, Crab Island was actually two islands made from sand that the
Corp. of Engineers dredged up from the East Pass.
This island was large enough back then to inhabit sea grass, small shrubs
and nesting seabirds, but time and weather have made it what it is today - an
island that appears only when the tide is out which provides a local haven for
area boaters and partiers.
The first
bridge connecting Okaloosa Island to Destin was constructed out of wood and
completed around 1933. A manual
laborer working on that bridge received about $1.50 a day and a trained mechanic
could make as much as $3.00 a day. Highway
98 was completed in 1934 opening up the isolated fishing village to all to
enjoy.
World War II
brought great expansion to the Eglin area with the building of Eglin Field,
today known as Eglin Air Force Base. So
naturally the people who came to work at Eglin Field moved east and started to
populate Destin.
Today
Destin harbors the largest and most finely equipped fishing fleet in Florida
with about 150 charter and party boats in operation. Fishing trips are run daily, three hundred and sixty five
days a year - weather permitting. The
daily catches can be enjoyed every afternoon along the docks, as well as the
fishing stories that abound.
Destin, also known as the “world’s luckiest fishing village” and the
billfishing capital of the northern Gulf is the home of many world record titles
and to some of the largest fishing tournaments in the world.
The tournaments draw millions of dollars to the gulf coast in tourism and
annual prize money attracting thousands of people from all over the world.
The Destin Rodeo, established in 1948, is the ultimate fishing tournament where
more than 30,000 anglers compete throughout the entire month of October for over
$100,000.00 in prizes ranging from trophies and merchandise to bonds and fishing
trips. Virtually every gamefish is
recognized with daily, weekly, and overall prizes in men’s, women’s and
junior anglers’ categories.
Gulf
fishermen find an abundance of grouper, amberjack, red snapper, triggerfish, and
scamp while bottom fishing. They
may even be lucky enough to hook up a huge Warsaw grouper that can weigh up to
over 400 pounds. While
trolling, a sport fisherman can fish for sailfish, white marlin, blue marlin,
Wahoo, king mackerel, and a variety of tunas. Fishing is great year-round in
Destin, and the winter months are even more bountiful because of the reduced
number of anglers. Charter boats
and party boats offer a wide variety of opportunities.
Choctawhatchee
Bay and its adjacent bayous may be fished year-round for many different kinds of
fish such as Flounder, Bluefish, Speckled Trout, White Trout, and Sheepshead.
You will also find an abundance of delicious Blue Crabs along the shores
of our bays and bayous.
The East and West jetties offer a perfect
refuge for snorkelers and divers.
Many different kinds of seashells can be collected and the many different
species of sea life that inhabit the barrier rocks can be enjoyed daily.
In
addition to fishing, other recreational activities include going to the beach,
golf, tennis, water sports such as jet skis and pontoon boats, and lets not
forget the shopping. The big water
park, Big Kahuna’s, is a must do. They
have rides and slides for all levels.
Destin
became officially incorporated as a municipality in November 1984 and now has a
fully functioning city council and government. The
quaint little fishing village known as “The World’s Luckiest Fishing Village”
has a population of about 12,000 year round residents but that number swells to
a whopping 40,000 during the tourist season.
The Emerald Coast accommodates over 4.5 million visitors annually, and
4.1 million of those are attributed directly to Destin.
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