Emerald Coast

Emerald Coast
Region
Country  United States
State  Florida
Cities Destin
Fort Walton Beach
Panama City Beach
Pensacola
Pensacola Beach
Navarre
Location of Florida's Emerald Coast
Emerald-green waters at St. Andrews State Park near the eastern edge of the "Emerald Coast"
Pensacola Beach, the western part of the "Emerald Coast".

The Emerald Coast is an unofficial name for the coastal area in the US state of Florida on the Gulf of Mexico that stretches about 100 mi (161 km) through five counties, Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, and Bay, from Pensacola to Panama City. Some south Alabama communities on the coast of Baldwin County, such as Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and Fort Morgan embrace the term as well. Recently the region has increasingly been dubbed the Redneck Riviera.

Origin of term

Beginning in 1946, for marketing purposes the coast from Fort Walton Beach to Panama City was called the "Playground of the Gulfcoast", as witnessed by the name of the Fort Walton Beach newspaper, the Playground News, later the Playground Daily News, and now the Northwest Florida Daily News. In 1952, this particular stretch of coast was dubbed the "Miracle Strip" by Claude Jenkins, a local journalist, a term which is still reflected in the name of the Miracle Strip Amusement Park and other local businesses.[1][2] The term "Miracle Strip" was officially adopted by thirty-five officials and members of three district Florida Motor Courts Association chapters on March 14, 1956, at a meeting held at the Staff Restaurant in Fort Walton Beach, for the 100-mile stretch of scenic Highway 98's "fabulous string of motels, hotels and nightspots" from Pensacola to Panama City. Members included representatives of local chambers of commerce.[3]

The beaches are along the Emerald Coast from Pensacola to Panama City are referred to as the "Redneck Riviera", bearing a strong Southern culture. The area is home to several tattoo parlors and locations of the Waffle House, a restaurant chain associated with the South.[4][5] The Flora-Bama in Perdido Key at the Alabama border is a bar and music venue with a diverse Southern clientele.[5]

According to the Daily News, the term Emerald Coast was coined in 1983 by a junior high school student, Andrew Dier, who won $50 in the contest for a new area slogan.[6] Since then, the term has been expanded by popular usage to cover all of the northwest coast of Florida from Pensacola Beach to Panama City Beach.

Beach in Destin at the center of the Coast

Popular vacation destinations include Pensacola, Pensacola Beach, Gulf Breeze, Navarre, Navarre Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, WaterColor, Panama City Beach, Destin, and Seaside, a planned community whose iconic pastel-paint and tin-roof construction was made famous in the Jim Carrey movie The Truman Show, filmed in the area from 1996-1997. Other communities on the Emerald Coast include Perdido Key, Navarre, Sandestin, Mexico Beach, Grayton Beach, Inlet Beach, and Santa Rosa Beach.

The area is known as a family drive destination, attracting tourists from across the Southern United States due to its close proximity. The Emerald Coast is a three-hour drive east of New Orleans.[5] In the first decade of the 21st century, the popularity of the Emerald Coast expanded greatly, leading to new construction booms and seemingly overnight changes.[7] Many development communities similar to Seaside sprang up in the southern part of Walton County and at the western end of Panama City Beach, raising property values.

Deep-sea fishing is a huge draw for the area, with Destin holding the nickname "World's Luckiest Fishing Village" [8] (and several saltwater world records) and Panama City Beach hosting the annual high-dollar Bay Point Billfish Invitational. The area has many seafood restaurants as well.

Military bases

This part of Florida is home to several military bases, with installations including Naval Air Station Pensacola (home of the Navy's Blue Angels demonstration team and the initial training site for all naval aviators), Hurlburt Field, Eglin Air Force Base (one of the largest military bases in America), Tyndall Air Force Base (home to the Air Force's F-22 Raptor fighter jets), Coastal Systems Station-Naval Surface Warfare Center (home to the Navy Experimental Diving Unit and Naval Diving & Salvage Training Center), and Corry Station Naval Technical Training Center.

In addition to military bases and related civilian contractors, tourism, fishing, and hospitality industries are also major employers in the area.

The well-established military presence in the region has led to many film appearances, the earliest being the practice takeoff runs by Doolittle Raiders for Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, shot at Peel Field, an auxiliary field at Eglin Field, in 1944. Some scenes in the 1949 film Twelve O'Clock High, another film about World War II, were also shot at Eglin.

The 1972 eco-horror film Frogs was filmed in Walton County, Florida, in and around the Wesley House, an old southern mansion located in Eden Gardens State Park in the town of Point Washington, situated on Tucker Bayou off Choctawhatchee Bay.

Exterior shots and several interior scenes for 1998's The Truman Show were filmed in Seaside.[9]

The majority of scenes for Jaws 2 (1978) were filmed in the region as well, specifically in the Navarre area. Interiors for the youth's pinball hang-out were filmed in Fort Walton Beach at the now-razed original location of Hog's Breath Saloon on Okaloosa Island, and Bruce the Shark's control sled was placed on the bottom of the Gulf off Navarre Beach and the mainland community of Navarre.

Redneck Riviera is the title of a song by Tom T. Hall about this region (from his 1996 album Songs from Sopchoppy). Lyrics include:

Gulf Shores up through Apalachicola
They got beaches of the whitest sand
Nobody cares if gramma's got a tattoo
Or Bubba's got a hot wing in his hand

Parts of John Grisham's book The Whistler (2016) takes place in and around the Emerald Coast.

Anaïs Nin and Rupert stopped at one of the salt-white sandy beaches around Panama City-FL, on their trip back to Sierra Madre-CA, in their Ford Sport convertible, in May 1952, a record trip in 11 days from Miami-FL. (see Trapeze ©2017 pg. 108)

Country music superstar John Rich, of Big & Rich fame, started a company brand called Redneck Riviera, which focuses on southern lifestyle. The brand features apparel, footwear, whiskey, beef jerky, and a restaurant/bar in Nashville. There was also a Redneck Riviera in Las Vegas, which closed in 2018.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hollis, Tim. Florida's Miracle Strip: From Redneck Riviera to Emerald Coast. University of Mississippi Press, 2004, p. 23.
  2. ↑ "The Florida Handbook". Peninsular Publishing Company. 2 August 1985. Retrieved 2 August 2017 – via Google Books.
  3. ↑ Fort Walton Beach, Florida, "'Miracle Strip' Tag Official For This Area", Playground News Thursday 22 March 1956, Volume 11, Number 7, page 14.
  4. ↑ Muther, Christopher (February 3, 2017). "Greetings from the Redneck Riviera". The Boston Globe. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 Gold, Scott (February 5, 2016). "Why the Redneck Riviera Is an American Paradise". HuffPost. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
  6. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-02. Retrieved 2011-07-10.
  7. ↑ Higgins, Michelle. "14 Easy Weekend Getaways". Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  8. ↑ http://www.nwfdailynews.com/opinion/editorial-42336-use-editorialized.html
  9. ↑ "The Truman Show (1998)". Retrieved 2 August 2017.

Further reading

  • Bouler, Jean Lufkin. Exploring Florida's Emerald Coast: A Rich History and a Rare Ecology. University of Florida Press, 2007. ISBN 0813030862
  • Hollis, Tim. Florida's Miracle Strip: From Redneck Riviera to Emerald Coast. University of Mississippi Press, 2004. ISBN 1578066263
  • Jackson, Harvey H., III. "The Rise and Decline of the Redneck Riviera: The Northern Rim of the Gulf Coast since World War II," Southern Cultures, 16 (Spring 2010), 7–30.

Coordinates: 30°23′37″N 86°29′45″W / 30.3935337°N 86.4957833°W / 30.3935337; -86.4957833

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