We (self and wife, adult son and partner, all Aussies) spent 5 days in a low rise place on the beach at Fort Walton last October.

About 60 percent of the 24 miles of beaches around Fort Walton and Destin have been protected against any development by state or federal governments.

Fort Walton, to the west, is "built out," the locals like to say, but to the east, at Destin and beyond, the building boom is still raging.

Ward C is beyond those bluffs directly behind this compound and the staff quarters, housed in what was once Fort Walton.

Later that day, the hurricane watches were upgraded to a hurricane warning for the northwestern Florida coast, from Fort Walton to St Marks.

Randy Smyth, a sailmaker from Fort Walton, has won the 15-year-old competition three times.

Other locations around Fort Walton also served as secondary locations for filming.

The Fort Walton and later Leon-Jefferson peoples are the direct ancestors of the Apalachee peoples.

The 1940 census counted 90 residents in Fort Walton.

Fort Walton was incorporated by a State Senate bill effective June 16, 1941.