Community Archive

HAM radios have been around for more than a century. Around the world amateur radio operators of all ages have communicated to those down the street or on another continent thousands of miles away.

Since 1978 the North Okaloosa Amateur Radio Club has been providing local citizens a place to go and grow their contacts and knowledge about radio.

At the end of a dead-end road in Holley, a small community just north of Navarre, the largest known collection of artifacts from the turpentine industry is kept in a tidy clay-colored building behind Raymond Melvin’s home.

Melvin, whose dad, granddads and great-granddads all trace their roots to the industry, started his collection when he was 22. More than 50 years later, it includes more than 1,000 items ranging from tools and scales to cut trees and cups to hold the sap.