Fort Walton Beach is a city in southern Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. As of 2004, the population estimate for Fort Walton Beach, Florida is 19,992 recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau. >http://www.census.gov/popest/cities/tables/SUB-EST2004-04-12.xls It is a principal city of the Fort Walton Beach-Crestview, Florida-Destin, Florida Fort Walton Beach-Crestview-Destin, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Fort Walton Beach is a year round fishing and beach resort. Its busiest time of the year is during the summer, with spring break being another busy time when thousands of people flock to the Emerald Coast.

History
Prehistoric...

Fort Walton Beach is a city in southern Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. As of 2004, the population estimate for Fort Walton Beach, Florida is 19,992 recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau. >http://www.census.gov/popest/cities/tables/SUB-EST2004-04-12.xls It is a principal city of the Fort Walton Beach-Crestview, Florida-Destin, Florida Fort Walton Beach-Crestview-Destin, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Fort Walton Beach is a year round fishing and beach resort. Its busiest time of the year is during the summer, with spring break being another busy time when thousands of people flock to the Emerald Coast.

History
Prehistoric settlement of the Fort Walton Beach is attributed to the mound building'Fort Walton Culture'that flourished from approximately 1100~1550 AD. This culture appeared to come about due to contact with the major Mississippian centers to the north and west. It was the most complex in the north west Florida region. The Fort Walton peoples put in to practice mound building, intensive agriculture, made pottery in a variety of vessel shapes and had a hierarchial settlement patterns that reflected other Mississippian societies.

The first Europeans to step foot into what is now Okaloosa County and the Fort Walton Beach area were members of ??lvar N????ez Cabeza de Vaca's party, who traveled by boat from what is now Panama City Beach, Florida in 1528 to Texas'Then we set out to sea again, coasting towards the River of Palms. Every day our thirst and hunger increased because our supplies were giving out, as well as the water supply, for the pouches we had made from the legs of our horses soon became rotten and useless. From time to time we would enter some inlet or cove that reached very far inland, but we found them all shallow and dangerous, and so we navigated through them for thirty days, meeting sometimes Indians who fished and were poor and wretched people'.

The area is described at'Baixa de Baca'in a Spanish map dated 1566. In later English and French maps the area of was noted as'Baya Santa Rosa'or'Bay St. Rose'. A number of Spanish artifacts, including a portion of brigantine leather armor, are housed in the Indian Temple Mound Museum.