Enjoy your trip as well!History and Culture of Panama City Beach Florida(cont.)
Panama City Beach, FL(cont.) -
The completion of this railroad brought a great many changes. Now, the population was over 600, and Panama City was incorporated in 1909 with ballots from 34 qualified voters.
Millville was still ranked as the area's largest community in 1910. Six general stores prospered in the city, along with a livery, a grocery, drug stores, a millenary, a courthouse and several other businesses. It was about that time, that Walter C. Sherman bought the mill and named it the St. Andrew Bay Lumber Company.
In the meantime, Lynn Haven was making national news as a colony for civil war veterans. Many vets moved to the retirement community they called "The Magic City."
It was a tight knit community, and they worked hard to build their homes and plant significant gardens... the media of the day took notice and began to call the town of Lynn Haven the "Queen City of the South." This slogan was used extensively in the hopes of attracting more people to the area.
The Gulf Coast Highway, (Hwy 98) was completed in the 1930's, as well as the Hathaway, DuPont and Bailey bridges which connected the beaches to the cities of Panama City and Lynn Haven.
The bridges made travel along the coast much more convenient, but beach property was still considered worthless. Few individuals realized the great natural asset of the soft white sand beaches.
In 1933, the U.S. Corps of Engineers began construction of the "New Pass" due to increased shipping and the need for deeper water access.
Prior to completion of the dredging, the popular two story resort Pavilion, located east of the intended Pass, was hauled by oxen, along the beach to a new, more accessible, location.
The Pass was completed in 1934 and, by 1936, Panama City's first tourist attraction had grown up around the old Pavilion.
They called it Long Beach and lots were sold for $100 to $600; investors were urged to "profit while you play." The Long Beach Casino opened a few years later, but beachfront property was still considered to be of little value.
The area's first radio station, WDLP, went on air in 1938, and the 30's saw serious tourism development for the first time. Even through the depression, Panama City and the beaches continued to grow slowly; the Washington News Daily stated "Panama City has a destiny as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow..."
With the second World War came even more building blocks to the evolution of Panama City. Families, schools and churches were uprooted for the building of a gunnery school in 1941. This military installation was to be called Tyndall, named in honor of WWI ace lieutenant, Frank B. Tyndall.
Tyndall Field was erected at a cost of $3,723,567 and stood to serve 130 officers, 800 cadets and 1900 enlisted men. One of those officers was the famous actor, Clark Gable, who played "Rhett Butler" in Gone with the Wind, and for five weeks in 1942, as Gable worked to earn his "silver wings," Panama City was in the national spotlight.
The war department found St. Andrews an ideal harbor, with its two heavily-timbered peninsulas for protection and 200 miles of coastline. In 1942, a small installation was constructed across from Wainwright Shipyard where 102 Liberty ships and six tankers were built during the war. The base was recommissioned as a U.S. Navy Countermeasures Station in 1945.
The Panama City-Bay County area was now a military town and needed an adequate airport. More than 500 people witnessed the first airline flight arrive in 1948 and later in 1949, the airport was named Fannin Field.
Bay County carved its place in the history books in 1961, with the landmark case of Clarence Earl Gideon. Gideon robbed a Bay Harbor pool room and, when brought to trial, requested to be accompanied by counsel. He was denied representation, and he was sentenced to five years in prison. Gideon petitioned the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming he did not receive a fair trial.
On March 18, 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision, stating "the right of a man to have a lawyer is considered essential in the U.S." Gideon received a new trial and was found not guilty... it was an important milestone in America's justice system.
By this time, Panama City had "chopped its way out of the wilderness surrounding a seaside fishing village to an industrial city of 30,000."
The post war years brought bigger and better bridges. Towering, 100 foot, sand dunes along the crystal blue shore were replaced with high-rise condominiums, amusement parks, motels and highways.
Many of those long ago landmarks are gone forever, only remembered in the minds of the people who lived through the changes. But, the history of a place never really leaves it. History is part of the fabric of the Gulf Coast, and those interested in learning more can find many ways to explore the past. 
