FORT WALTON BEACH

city, Okaloosa county, northwestern Florida, U.S., at the western end of Choctawhatchee Bay (off the Gulf of Mexico), separated from the Santa Rosa Island beaches by Santa Rosa Sound, 40 miles (64 km) east of Pensacola. The fort was established during the Seminole Wars and named for Colonel George Walton, territorial secretary of West Florida (182122) and East-West Florida (182226). The fishing village that grew around the fort evolved in the 1920s as a yachting centre. Created the Municipality of Fort Walton in 1937, it was reincorporated (1941) as a town and was rechartered in 1947 and again in 1953, when it was renamed the City of Fort Walton Beach. After 1950 it developed as a residential resort. A pre-Columbian Indian Temple Mound and Museum are there. The campus of Okaloosa-Walton Community College (1963) is at nearby Niceville. Pop. (1992 est.) city, 22,383; Fort Walton Beach MSA, 149,885.