The event was moderated by Niceville Councilwoman Cathy Alley with
Mayor Dan Henkel offering the opening remarks. Niceville Police Department
Chaplain, Doug Stauffer offered the invocation. The presentation of the colors
was performed by the junior ROTC followed by the national anthem by Opus One from
Niceville High School.
The three current markers are the “Old Maritime City” marker,
the Boggy Mill Company Site marker, and the Niceville Fire
1934 marker. The attractive, informative signs are located at three
locations on historic Bayshore Drive. The stories cover the places and people
who created the Niceville community.
The project has been in the making for years. The Old Maritime
City marker is located at the Niceville Landing (old fish company site), the
Boggy Mill marker at Lions Park (part of the old mill site), and the Niceville
Fire 1934 marker is near Katie’s House of Flowers (the site of the fire).
The Niceville Historian, Elisa Mitchiner, said the Old
Maritime City marker depicts that all commerce in the area was by water
until the advent of the automobile. Products from local sawmills, shingle mills
and turpentine stills were transported across Choctawhatchee Bay to Pensacola. In
1911, the steamer Belle sank with the loss of four lives including local Capt.
Noah Edward Burlison. The Niceville Fish Company operated by Claude Meigs and
the Spence Brothers Fish Company were the leading commercial fishing industries
of the Choctawhatchee Bay region maintaining fish warehouses and fleets of
boats.
The Boggy Mill Company Site marker highlights
the timber and lumber industry during the early 1900’s. The complex consisted
of 40 acres, one of the largest lumber-mills operating in the area in the early
1900’s.
The Niceville Fire 1934 marker tells of the fire that
destroyed three grocery stores, a dry goods store, creamery, post office
building, hotel, drug store and fish warehouses, estimated at $100,000 (worth
$2,000,000 in 2021). There was no running water with which to combat the flames
and it appeared for a time that the town would be completely destroyed until
the forest firefighters and CCC workers took charge.
The historic markers are part of the state’s historical markers program. Mitchiner said, The text for the markers is based on warranty deeds and period newspaper accounts. Currently, there are seven markers in Okaloosa County with three of those now located in Niceville. Check out the Niceville history website at www.boggyflorida.com.
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