∼ Things to Know About Destin ∼
Destin, Florida is located in Okaloosa County. The city of Destin is located on a peninsula separating the Gulf of Mexico from Choctawhatchee Bay. The peninsula was originally a barrier island. Hurricanes and sea level changes gradually connected it to the mainland. In the 1940s, it technically became an island again with the completion of the Choctawhatchee-West Bay Canal.
Destin is named after Leonard Destin, a New London, Connecticut fishing captain who settled in the area between 1845 and 1850. His family remains in the area; Dewey Destin’s restaurant displays many pictures from their history in Destin. Several other restaurants and business owners have local roots that span generations.
All the beaches in Destin are sugar-white, soft, and surprisingly cool underfoot even in the heat of the summer. Why? The unique sand of the beaches in the Destin area is among the whitest and most homogenous of the world.
The sands here contain finely ground, rounded quartz crystals that originally washed down from the Appalachian Mountains and the Apalachicola River 20,000 years ago.
At the end of the last Ice Age when the world temperatures began warming and the ice caps began melting, large volumes of water were carried by the rivers to the world’s oceans. The Apalachicola River, rising in the Appalachians, carried water to the Gulf of Mexico and continues today. This water carried the quartz particles from the rock that forms the Appalachian Mountains and deposited them in the Gulf of Mexico, just 125 miles to the east of what is now Destin. As the sea level began to rise, these quartz sands eventually formed a new shoreline. The sands today continually replenish and reach as far west as the Pensacola Pass, their final destination.
Those white sands also reflect the sun brilliantly back through the shallows of the Gulf of Mexico, creating a stunning emerald cast to the water and contributed to this stretch of Florida shoreline being dubbed “The Emerald Coast.”
Destin, Florida is affectionately known as the “World’s Luckiest Fishing Village.” Destin Harbor is home to the nation’s largest and most elaborately-equipped charter fishing fleet.
With a charter fleet bringing in thousands of pounds of fish daily, Destin is ground zero for enjoying a remarkable array of local catch, including Gulf classics such as grouper, red snapper, flounder, wahoo, cobia, oysters, crab, and of course, those big, sweet Gulf shrimp. The range of restaurants—from salty oyster spots on overwater piers to elevated dining rooms in beautiful new resorts—means there’s a Gulf-to-table experience for every taste and budget.
Surfer in front of Cabana Club