Carrabelle Beach and Pensacola Florida

Carrabelle is south of Tallahassee Florida on the Gulf of Mexico.......it's an area called "The Forgotten Coast"

In 1528 the first Spanish expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez passed through the area on its way from Tampa Bay to the Rio Grande. From the late 17th century through early 18th century a few passages referring to the area are mentioned. Carrabelle, Dog Island, and St. George Island served as points to stage raids on local ports as well as San Marcos de Apalache in 1677 and 1682.
In 1876 explorer Nathaniel Holmes Bishop of Medford, Massachusetts navigated the Crooked River through the lowlands to the Ochlockonee River. In 1877 Oliver Hudson Kelly, from Massachusetts founded the town and named it Rio Carrabelle. The following year the first U.S. Post office was established with its address as Rio Carrabelle. By 1881 the population was between 500 and 600 people.
In 1891 The Carrabelle, Tallahassee and Georgia Railroad was established to connect Carrabelle northward through Tallahassee to the Florida-Georgia line.
On August 1, 1899, the 2nd hurricane of the season struck the area almost destroying the town leaving just nine homes.
In 1942, Camp Gordon Johnston was opened for the purpose of training amphibious soldiers on nearby beaches. The camp trained a quarter of a million men and closed in 1946.
On August 23, 2008, Tropical Storm Fay made its record fourth landfall in the state of Florida at Carrabelle.

 

The "World's Smallest Police Station" came into being on March 10, 1963. The city had been having problems with tourists making unauthorized long distance phone calls on its police phone. The phone was located in a call box that was bolted to a building at the corner of U.S. 98 and Tallahassee Street. Johnnie Mirabella, St. Joe Telephone's lone Carrabelle employee at the time, first tried moving the call box to another building, but the illegal calls continued.
With the help of Curly Messer, who was a deputy sheriff at the time, Mirabella moved the phone booth to its current site on U.S. 98. The booth did protect the officers from the elements, but some people still sneaked into it to make long distance calls. Eventually the dial was removed from the phone, making it impossible for tourists to make calls.
It has been featured on television shows "Real People", "Ripley's Believe It or Not", "The Today Show", "Johnny Carson". It was featured in the movie "Tate's Hell" which was produced at Florida State University.
But life has not always been easy for the retired St. Joseph Telephone and Telegraph Company phone booth. Vandals have ripped phones out of the booth and shot holes through the glass. It has been knocked over by a pickup truck, a tourist once asked a gas station attendant to help him load it into his vehicle to take it back to Tennessee and it was knocked over and damaged by Hurricane Kate.

 

 

Pensacola is a sea port on Pensacola Bay, which is protected by the barrier island of Santa Rosa and connects to the Gulf of Mexico. A large United States Naval Air Station, the first in the United States, is located southwest of Pensacola (near Warrington); it is the base of the Blue Angels flight demonstration team and the National Naval Aviation Museum.
The area was originally inhabited by Muskogean peoples; the Pensacola people lived there at the time of European contact and Creek people frequently visited and traded from present-day southern Alabama. Spanish explorer Tristán de Luna's founded a short-lived settlement in 1559. In 1698 the Spanish established a presidio in the area, from which the modern city gradually developed. The area changed hands several times as European powers competed in North America. During Florida's British rule (1763–1789), fortifications were strengthened.
It is nicknamed "The City of Five Flags," due to the five governments that have ruled it during its history: the flags of Spain (Castile), France, Great Britain, the United States of America and the Confederate States of America. Other nicknames include "World's Whitest Beaches" (due to the white sand of Florida panhandle beaches), "Cradle of Naval Aviation", "Western Gate to the Sunshine State", "America's First Settlement", "Emerald Coast", "Redneck Riviera", "Red Snapper Capital of the World", and "P-Cola".

 

We spent the day driving around Pensacola, found these guys in shallow water out front of RV park.  Have never seen Horseshoe Crabs....pretty darn cool