and courage and adventure. It has many tales to tell and within
the walls of the museum, artifacts of the past bear witness to
its lineage—tracing its lifeline from a tiny village nestled along
the shoreline to the bustling and vibrant city that has become
known as a piece of paradise. “The Museum’s mission statement
is ‘to preserve Destin’s history by stimulating interest…and
[providing an] understanding of the village of Destin, its history,
and its fishing and tourism industries through experiences that
educate and inspire,’” says Executive Director Kathy Marler
Blue. “It really serves as the key repository for the history of
Destin’s founding families, the development of the city and its
surrounding areas and the local charter and commercial fishing
industry. For someone who is newly visiting the area, taking a trip
to the Museum helps them understand the Destin of today by
stepping back in time to the way things once were, to the village
of Destin.” Blue continues “for locals, the Museum offers an
important reminder of the many, many things that we have the
unique opportunity to enjoy here, living in such a beautiful place
with such an interesting past.”
Located in the old Destin Library building on Stahlman
Avenue, the Destin History and Fishing Museum is home to a
host of pieces of Destin’s roots, showcasing items donated by the
city’s founding families as well as those contributed by generous
businesses and individuals who hope to enrich our knowledge of
the many ways that Destin is so special. It is a treasure trove to
behold—photos and letters, physical mementos of everyday life,
pieces of the very tools of the industry that has long carried the
city on its back. All of them are collected here to be studied and
discussed, to be wondered at and held in reverence.
Among the many marvels to behold are the two dry
“aquariums” that are at the museum’s entrance. The Reef
Ecosystem Recreation is a static display of aquatic life that seems
to offer an up-close and personal look at just what lies in the
deepest depths, while the Shark Tank contains a fierce foursome
of sharks, including a hammerhead shark that measures eight
and a half feet and a world record holding smooth hound shark.
An impressive array of locally caught fish line the wall on the
Mike Long Memorial Fish Wall and a variety of exhibits spread
throughout the building offer facts and figures on Destin’s
culture, its natural environments and all manner of scientific and
historic details related to the area.
For the perfect selfie-moment, take a picture with the eleven-
foot seven-inch alligator who stands guard just inside or snap
a smile with the wickedly realistic Megladon shark jaw replica
that hangs outside. In the Museum Heritage Park, visitors can
take their tour outdoors and view an exhibit of Destin’s very first
Post Office building as well as two restored boats whose histories
figure greatly into Destin’s own —the last seine boat still in
existence, called Primrose, and a mullet boat called Lil Jimmy.
Whether you’re new to the area, on a visit, or have lived here
all your life there’s always something to learn, something to find
and view with fresh eyes. It’s places like the Destin History and
Fishing Museum that stand as sentinels of the past and serve as
representatives of the stories that make the world so intriguing,
so beautiful, and so mysterious. So many lives have been lived
and are yet to be lived in this great big sea of people—and each of
these lives undoubtedly have their very own fish stories to tell.
Destin History & Fishing Museum, Inc., is located at 108
Stahlman Avenue, Destin, Florida 32541. Open Tuesday-
Saturday 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. For information on ticket pricing
and membership packages, call (850) 837-6611 or visit www.
destinhistoryandfishingmuseum.org
October/November 2016 | 29
“For someone who is newly visiting the area, taking a trip to the Museum
helps them understand the Destin of today by stepping back in time to the
way things once were, to the village of Destin.”
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