OLD MARITIME CITY

Niceville was the center of the commercial fishing industry of the Choctawhatchee Bay region, the basis of the community's prosperity. Mail service here was established in 1868. The schooner Bera Attious was built at the shipyard here in 1888. Niceville in Walton County was known as Boggy until 1910, when the name changed. In 1915 Okaloosa County was formed. Products from local sawmills, shingle mills and turpentine stills were transported across Choctawhatchee Bay to Pensacola. In 1911, the steamer Belle, loaded with naval stores, sank with the loss of four lives including local Noah Edward Burlison. Fishing was a lucrative industry, and fish wagons from as far away as Alabama and other parts of north Florida came to this area to buy fish. Some of the launches servicing this area were the Swan, Donna, Ruth, Fritz, and the Belle. They provided passenger, freight and mail services with scheduled stops between here and Pensacola. In 1934, an ice factory made it possible to produce large quantities of ice, which increased fish sales. The Niceville Fish Company operated by Claude Meigs and the Spence Brothers Fish Company were the leading commercial fishing industries maintaining fish warehouses and fleets of boats.