History of Navarre Beach, FL

A beach community, in simple splendor and quiet repose, Navarre Beach is located in Santa Rosa County, on Santa Rosa Island, among a spectrum of places to visit: Navarre and Milton to the north, Gulf Breeze and Pensacola to the west, and Fort Walton to the east. Blackwater River State Forest, filling Santa Rosa County with more than 190,000 acres of woods, rivers, lakes, and waterways, is the largest state forest in Florida. Navarre Beach's clear blue sea and white, gentle shores sit on the southern boundary of Santa Rosa County, in visage of the vast Gulf of Mexico. Native Americans lived off marine and natural resources, until an influx of Spanish, English, French, and early American settlers drove out the Native Americans and brought about shipbuilding, forts, and navel compounds. Navarre Beach's notable record begins with Col. Guy Wyman, a retired Army engineer, who founded the area in 1925. He loved the virgin shores and named it Navarre after a province in Spain. Only when the bridge to the mainland was constructed in the 1960s did Navarre Beach begin its silent growth into a resort community. Navarre Beach caught Stephen Spielberg's eye. He used the community as a location for Jaws II, in the 1970s. Careful planning has shaped Navarre Beach, so that the luxury and simplicity are there, without the overcrowded beaches and general disarray of most beach resort towns. Navarre Beach is unincorporated; however, the population of all of Santa Rosa County, as of 2005, is estimated to be 143,105.