CRESTVIEW — Today, a day at the beach is just a 40-minute drive from the county seat.
But in Crestview’s formative years, just getting to the beach was an adventure in itself.
See 15 photos of North Okaloosa residents' 1930's-60's beach outings>>
AN ORDEAL
The economic, business and political center of today’s Okaloosa County was once located between the thriving railroad towns of Crestview, Milligan, Baker and Laurel Hill.
True, New Englander Capt. Leonard Destin came to East Pass looking for new fishing grounds in the 1840s. And in 1868, John Thomas Brooks landed his wife and their rowboat on Santa Rosa Sound's north shore.
But few from the north end tried to visit their establishments, given the wetlands, streams, a river and miles of sand between the Shoal River and south beaches.
In “The Heritage of Okaloosa County,” pioneer resident Will Brooks described traveling by two-wheeled ox cart along the “the sandy ruts of a winding road” that connected Camp Walton and Crestview.
“The journey required two days and one night to make the round trip,” historian Sylvia Reeves wrote. “(Brooks) hung a frying pan and coffeepot to the cart axle and camped out over night.”
DISCOVERING THE BEACH
By the early 1900s, vacationers began discovering the delight of swimming — they called it “bathing” back then — in gulf communities’ emerald waters. Camp Walton sprouted three hotels to accommodate beach goers.
Now, they just needed means to get there.
In 1916, a bridge finally spanned the Shoal River south of Crestview and facilitated automobile travel south to Niceville, Valparaiso, Garniers and Camp Walton.
Gladys Garrett Griffith told Betty Curenton and Claudia Patten, authors of “Crestview: The Forkland,” that the four car-owning Crestview families, hers included, would drive in a Sunday motorcade, armed with shovels and axes to free their vehicles from hazards on the long ride to Camp Walton, where they’d stay at the Indianola Inn for beach vacations.
In June 1918, an ad in The Okaloosa News-Journal announced a new jitney service between Crestview and Camp Walton for $2 each way. It promised a “comfortable car with experienced driver at all times” for the two-hour trip.
FAMILY VACATIONS
In the 1930s, North Okaloosa County families headed south in greater numbers as roads became hard-surfaced and the trip became quicker and more comfortable.
Those who couldn’t afford hotels or guest houses camped out on or near the beach, sometimes in their cars.
After World War II, many families, often in multi-generational groups, rented beach houses for vacations of a week or more in Destin or Fort Walton, which had been renamed after a Civil War cannon was unearthed.
Cousins Katie Lynn Powell, of Andalusia, Ala., and Elizabeth Kelly, then of Crestview, recalled a 1964 family vacation at the O’Neal cottage in Destin, then a sleepy little village.
The cottage is one of South Okaloosa County’s last remaining waterfront homes, and today is surrounded by condos, restaurants and hotels.
Today, few quaint cottages remain, and the sweeping, natural gulf vistas that drew local vacationers are preserved only in a few protected government-owned areas.
But for older residents, joyful memories of long road trips culminating in the reward of playing on some of the world’s loveliest beaches remain vivid.
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Centennial Celebration: Emerald waters start to attract bathers, vacationers
