History of Destin, Florida

If you like geology, learn about how the quartz white sands, considered to be whitest in the world, came from the Appalachian Mountains: residue flowing down the Apalachicola River and depositing in the Gulf of Mexico. If you like a good story, the construction of the East Pass is a well-told tale around Destin. Before 1926, the Gulf of Mexico and Destin Harbor didn't meet the Choctawhatchee Bay, which endangered the area of flooding. The Melvin, Marler, and Destin families had four men dig a two foot wide ditch across Okaloosa Island. Water rushed through and, within mere hours, the ditch grew hundreds of yards wide, becoming the East Pass. While the story is fascinating, it is a fact that, in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish, French, and English explorers noted the East Pass. Destin's known history is exhibited by Native American artifacts, dating as far back as the 7th century. Spanish explorers first surveyed the area in 1538. Surveyor Don Francisco Tapia charted the Florida coast in 1639, and drew up the first known map of the East Pass. Connecticut fisherman Leonard Destin settled in 1845. His descendents and he fished and navigated through the East Pass. Incorporated in 1984, Destin is dubbed the "World's Luckiest Fishing Village". According to the 2000 Census, 11,119 people reside in Destin.