FLASHBACK Okaloosa

The second of eight children, McTear, born in 1957, grew up in a tiny house near the railroad tracks in Milligan. Wearing Chuck Taylor tennis shoes and cut-off jeans, he used to race the train that ran by his house each day. It was by these railroad track, which still exist, that Bert Moore took our canoe group of the river briefly for a history lesson or should I say lessons. One of which was abo...

Have you looked at maps of Okaloosa County from the 1900s? Some of the towns and cities like Crestview, Mary Esther, Destin are on there but what about the towns that we never see on current maps, like Fisher, Deerland, Otahite, Newell, Oak Grove, Pineway and even a town called Brick. Today's episode is about one town near Laurel Hill. It's spelled SVEA. We will get into the founding of this town...

Rumors, stories, and speculation have existed for decades about whether the notorious criminal Alphonse Capone ever visited or did business in Okaloosa County, Florida. Listen as FLASHBACK explores this question.

Whether you’re an angler, people watcher, beachgoer, seagull or great blue heron,  and yes of course, a fish, the pier has something for everyone. The pier invites gathering. It invites exploration and wonder. It welcomes curiosity and camaraderie. We don’t know the future and if she can live another 26 years without serious injury, but we do know we will always love our pier and cherish the memor...

Listen to those who remember when Crab Island was an actual island and how it has evolved over the years.

Thanksgiving in the 1900s in North Florida, Camp Walton, Okaloosa

As you listen, this episode was recorded in the spooky month of October, but this episode is timeless in that it tells of a local ghost story that I have heard many times and in many different versions – The Legend of the Lady’s Walk. Those of you who live on the Santa Rosa Sound in Mary Esther or in Fort Walton Beach are probably very familiar with this story and may have even been frightened as...

Today on Flashback, I want to you to imagine this town, our County with only two or three hotels or inns. Dirt roads abound. A commercial airport has not yet been created. The railroad in the County is still relatively new and the only way to get to Okaloosa County by land is by rail. No bridges have been built and places like Destin are minor blips on a map, let alone the consciousness of would-b...

The early settlers of Mary Esther were cattlemen, preachers and hard-working folks who created this quiet bedroom community in Northwest Florida's Panhandle between Pensacola and Destin-Fort Walton Beach. We explore the early history of the City of Mary Esther and a short story of how Charles Lindbergh came to visit Mary Esther, Florida.

Okaloosa Beach Safety and other area lifeguard programs were created out of the tragedies on June 8, 2003, also known as Black Sunday. Listen to how Okaloosa County and Destin evolved into having a robust, professional lifeguarding program that continues to save lives every year through water safety education, contacts and rescues.

Listen as we talk with Charles Rigdon, son of CH "Bull" Rigdon. Bull, for many people, was the face of the fairgrounds for many years. His son Charles recounts the history of the fairgrounds.

For many of us, it is hard to imagine the contour of our beaches without the signature look of the Destin East Pass and the rock jetties protruding into the Gulf of Mexico. They are a signature look of Destin and signal both exit and entry into the East Pass. A doorway to what many believe is the best fishing in the country. So many rocks, such a massive endeavor, and all man-made.

Today’s story comes to you from the 1950s,  from a gentleman named Jimmy G Warr Sr. who was a boy living in Fort Walton at the time. He and his friends – the three amigos – had discovered what I have dreamed about for years living in beautiful Okaloosa County and it landed their story in every newspaper across the country.

Destin-Fort Walton Beach has had many names. We take you through the origin story of  VPS and how early developers in Valparaiso, Eglin Air Force Base and a partnership with Okaloosa County have influenced what it is today and how it will continue to be successful in the future.

The Arbennie Pritchett Water Reclamation Facility treats 7-10 million gallons of water every day. The facility was built in 2005 and was named after a man who spent his life serving the County, Bennie as he was known, was a wastewater operator for the County.

Take a drive around Okaloosa County and you are sure to come across the names of small towns or should I say communities that don’t have much prominence on a map and without some simple signage you probably wouldn’t know they even existed. This episode is about one of these communities, Dorcas Just outside of the city limits of Crestview heading east on U.S. Highway 90 past the Shoal River and pas...

On this episode of FLASHBACK we explore how people in Okaloosa County used to talk and write and express themselves through the years.

This is an addition to our very first episode of FLASHBACK which explored the history of the Racetrack, once located off of Racetrack Road. James Ward reached out to FLASHBACK and we were able to talk with him about his memories of this track from the 1950s. We were also able to explore a notable figure in Okaloosa County history, Silas Gibson. Thanks for listening and we'll see around town.

Okaloosa County has the distinction of being the first County in the state to accomplish certain "Firsts". Listen to the stories of becoming a Purple Heart County, the first Special Olympics County and how Fish Aggregating Devices are a game changer for anglers in the Gulf of Mexico. Need more Okaloosa County government information? - Go to MyOkaloosa.com

We will take through the history of the Brooks Bridge and give you an update on the replacement project currently underway. More info on the replacement project by FDOT can be found at https://nwflroads.com/projects/415474-2 In the 1930s the state saw the need to connect northwest Florida to south Florida on a highway system that would require a fair amount of bridges. The Gulf Coast Highway syste...

The Florida International Motor Speedway Destin was going to be a 2.5 triangular track with a 60,000 person seating capacity. The announcement for the track was made in newspapers Jan. 1, 1971. Listen to how this track almost became part of the Emerald Coast landscape.

There were drive-ins as early as the 1910s, but the first patented drive-in was opened I 1933 by Richard Hollingshead in New Jersey. He created it as a solution for people unable to comfortably fit into smaller movie theater seats after creating a mini drive-in for his mother. Hollingshead advertised his drive-in as a place where “The whole family is welcome, regardless of how noisy the children a...

We’ll get into whether German U-boats actually infiltrated the shores of the Choctaw Bay, and what would have happened if it turned into the largest seaport in the world as some early developers wanted And of course we will discuss the role of the nightlife in the early years of Shalimar. We will also get into a story about a not so widely know area of Shalimar, Black Point.

We explore the origin story of who built Water Boggan on Okaloosa Island in the late 1970s. Thanks to Harvey Fleming for this look into Okaloosa history.

We don't think much about County seats or what they mean. When Okaloosa County was formed in 1915 by the state legislature, a temporary County seat had to be named and Milligan was chosen. Listen to how they got the seat and how they lost it.