Santa Rosa Island, Florida
Encyclopedia
Barrier island
Barrier islands, a coastal landform and a type of barrier system, are relatively narrow strips of sand that parallel the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything from a few islands to more than a dozen...
located in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, thirty miles (50 km) east of the Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
state border. The communities of Pensacola Beach
Pensacola Beach, Florida
Pensacola Beach is an unincorporated community located on Santa Rosa Island, a barrier island, in Escambia County, Florida, United States. It is situated south of Pensacola, and Gulf Breeze connected via bridges spanning to the Fairpoint Peninsula and then to the island, on the Gulf of Mexico...
, Navarre Beach
Navarre Beach, Florida
Navarre Beach, is an unincorporated community in Santa Rosa County in the U.S. state of Florida. It is on Santa Rosa Island, a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico. The community is considered part of the Pensacola–Ferry Pass–Brent Metropolitan Statistical Area.Immediately to its east...
, and Okaloosa Island
Okaloosa Island
Okaloosa Island is a regionally used term for a small section of larger Santa Rosa Island located in Okaloosa County, Florida. Okaloosa Island is home to hundreds of residential homes, high rise condominiums and major hotels and motels. The area is unincorporated and uses Fort Walton Beach as a...
are located on the island.
On the northern lee side, of the island, are Pensacola Bay
Pensacola Bay
Pensacola Bay is a bay located in the northwestern part of Florida, United States, known as the Florida Panhandle.The bay, an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, is located in Escambia County and Santa Rosa County, adjacent to the city of Pensacola, Florida, and is about 13 miles long and 2.5 miles ...
on the west (see map) and Choctawhatchee Bay
Choctawhatchee Bay
Choctawhatchee Bay is a bay in the Emerald Coast region of the Florida Panhandle. The bay, located within Okaloosa and Walton counties, has a surface area of 129 mi2...
on the east, joined through Santa Rosa Sound
Santa Rosa Sound
Santa Rosa Sound is a sound connecting Pensacola Bay and Choctawhatchee Bay in Florida. The northern shore consists of the Fairpoint Peninsula and portions of the mainland in Santa Rosa County and Okaloosa County...
.
Santa Rosa Island has also been the site of numerous hurricanes and other tropical cyclones, including the hurricane of September 1559, Hurricane Erin
Hurricane Erin (1995)
Hurricane Erin was the fifth named tropical cyclone and the second hurricane of the unusually active 1995 Atlantic hurricane season. Erin began as a tropical wave off the west coast of Africa on July 22, and crossed the Atlantic ocean without ever developing. On July 31, the last day of the month,...
and Hurricane Opal
Hurricane Opal
Hurricane Opal was a Category 4 hurricane that formed in the Gulf of Mexico in September 1995.Opal was the ninth hurricane and the strongest of the abnormally active 1995 Atlantic hurricane season...
(1995), Hurricane Ivan
Hurricane Ivan
Hurricane Ivan was a large, long-lived, Cape Verde-type hurricane that caused widespread damage in the Caribbean and United States. The cyclone was the ninth named storm, the sixth hurricane and the fourth major hurricane of the active 2004 Atlantic hurricane season...
(2004), Hurricane Dennis
Hurricane Dennis
Hurricane Dennis was an early-forming major hurricane in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico during the very active 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. Dennis was the fourth named storm, second hurricane, and first major hurricane of the season...
(2005), Tropical Storm Claudette
Tropical Storm Claudette (2009)
Tropical Storm Claudette was the third named storm of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season and the first tropical cyclone of 2009 to affect the United States. Forming out of a tropical wave and an upper-level low pressure system on August 16, Claudette quickly intensified into a tropical storm...
(2009), and the remnants of Hurricane Ida (2009)
Hurricane Ida (2009)
Hurricane Ida was the strongest landfalling tropical cyclone during the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season, crossing the coastline of Nicaragua with winds of 80 mph . The remnants of the storm became a powerful nor'easter that caused widespread damage along coastal areas of the Mid-Atlantic States...
.
Parts of the island are in the Gulf Islands National Seashore
Gulf Islands National Seashore
Gulf Islands National Seashore offers recreation opportunities and preserves natural and historic resources along the Gulf of Mexico barrier islands of Florida and Mississippi. The protected regions include mainland areas and parts of 7 islands...
. Santa Rosa Island was the start of the earliest European settlement in the mainland United States, beginning in August 1559, led by Tristan de Luna from New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
(Mexico).
History
Santa Rosa Island was the site of early exploration by the Spanish ConquistadorsConquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
circa 1519. Years later, a settlement expedition arrived from Vera Cruz
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
(of New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
), in August 1559, led by Tristan de Luna. However, Spanish settlements in the area were later abandoned in 1561, due to problems of storms, famine and conflicts with native inhabitants. St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine is a city in the northeast section of Florida and the county seat of St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorer and admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, it is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United...
was later settled on the Atlantic coast of Florida, on August 28, 1565.
During the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, the island was the site of the Battle of Santa Rosa Island
Battle of Santa Rosa Island
The Battle of Santa Rosa Island was an unsuccessful Confederate attempt to take Union-held Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island, Florida.- Background :...
, on October 9, 1861. Richard Anderson
Richard H. Anderson
Richard Heron Anderson was a career U.S. Army officer, fighting with distinction in the Mexican-American War. He also served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War, fighting in the Eastern Theater of the conflict and most notably during the 1864 Battle of Spotsylvania Court House...
crossed from the Florida mainland onto Santa Rosa Island with 1200 men, in two small steamers, in a failed attempt to capture Fort Pickens
Fort Pickens
Fort Pickens is a pentagonal historic United States military fort on Santa Rosa Island in the Pensacola, Florida, area. It is named after American Revolutionary War hero Andrew Pickens. The fort was completed in 1834 and remained in use until 1947...
(located on the west end of the island).
In 1929, Santa Rosa Island was sold by the U.S. War Department to Escambia County, Florida
Escambia County, Florida
Escambia County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of Florida. The 2010 population was 297,619. The U.S. Census Bureau 2005 estimate for the county is 296,772. Its county seat is Pensacola.- History :...
, for US$10,000. Ten years later, the county returned the island to the federal government in the expectation that it would be developed into a U.S. National Monument
U.S. National Monument
A National Monument in the United States is a protected area that is similar to a National Park except that the President of the United States can quickly declare an area of the United States to be a National Monument without the approval of Congress. National monuments receive less funding and...
preserving the remnants of Fort Pickens
Fort Pickens
Fort Pickens is a pentagonal historic United States military fort on Santa Rosa Island in the Pensacola, Florida, area. It is named after American Revolutionary War hero Andrew Pickens. The fort was completed in 1834 and remained in use until 1947...
.
An 875 acres (3.5 km²) parcel of Santa Rosa Island with 3 miles (4.8 km) of Gulf frontage was conveyed to Okaloosa County on July 8, 1950 in an informal ceremony at the county courthouse in Crestview, Florida
Crestview, Florida
Crestview is a city in Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. Crestview’s name was chosen because of its location on the peak of a long woodland range between the Yellow and Shoal rivers which flow almost parallel on the east and west side of the City....
. The county paid the federal government $4,000 to complete the transaction, which was the result of the efforts of Congressman Bob Sikes
Robert L. F. Sikes
Robert Lee Fulton Sikes was a U.S. Representative from Florida.Born in Isabella, near Sylvester, Georgia, Sikes attended the public schools....
. The portion of Santa Rosa Island transferred is now known as Okaloosa Island. While the twelve mile (19 km) long beach road onto U.S. Air Force property west of the Okaloosa Island portion of Santa Rosa Boulevard was unguarded and accessible into the 1980s, heightened security concerns in the modern era have led to it being guarded or blocked at all times. Various missile launch and test facilities exist on Santa Rosa Island south and southwest of Hurlburt Field
Hurlburt Field
Hurlburt Field is a U.S. Air Force installation located in Okaloosa County, Florida, immediately west of the Town of Mary Esther. It is part of the greater Eglin Air Force Base reservation, and is home to Headquarters Air Force Special Operations Command , the 1st Special Operations Wing , the...
.
The island has seen many tropical cyclones; it was the landfall point of 1995's Hurricane Erin
Hurricane Erin (1995)
Hurricane Erin was the fifth named tropical cyclone and the second hurricane of the unusually active 1995 Atlantic hurricane season. Erin began as a tropical wave off the west coast of Africa on July 22, and crossed the Atlantic ocean without ever developing. On July 31, the last day of the month,...
and Hurricane Opal
Hurricane Opal
Hurricane Opal was a Category 4 hurricane that formed in the Gulf of Mexico in September 1995.Opal was the ninth hurricane and the strongest of the abnormally active 1995 Atlantic hurricane season...
. Hurricane Dennis
Hurricane Dennis
Hurricane Dennis was an early-forming major hurricane in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico during the very active 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. Dennis was the fourth named storm, second hurricane, and first major hurricane of the season...
hit the island in July 2005, and with 120 mph (193.1 km/h) winds, was the strongest storm to do so. However, a more recent tropical cyclone to make landfall on the island was Tropical Storm Claudette
Tropical Storm Claudette (2009)
Tropical Storm Claudette was the third named storm of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season and the first tropical cyclone of 2009 to affect the United States. Forming out of a tropical wave and an upper-level low pressure system on August 16, Claudette quickly intensified into a tropical storm...
in 2009.
In 2008-2009, a sunken Spanish ship was located/excavated offshore, confirming reports of the 1559 expedition by Tristan de Luna, as the earliest European settlement in the mainland United States.
One of the final missions in the Florida Phase of the US Army's Ranger School
Ranger School
The United States Army Ranger School is an intense 61-day combat leadership course oriented towards small-unit tactics. It has been called the "toughest combat course in the world" and "is the most physically and mentally demanding leadership school the Army has to offer". The course is conducted...
is conducted on Santa Rosa Island.