Fort Walton Beach Heritage Park

The Fort Walton Beach Heritage Park is a small museum complex with a lot of exhibits.  Admission for all museums in the complex will be taken at the Indian Temple Mound Museum building. Admission is $5 and discounted for seniors, military and children.  The park centers on the Indian Temple Mound Museum.  .This museum is handicapped accessible.  All other museums are located within a one minute walk around the base of the mound.

The museum opened in 1962 and is the first municipally owned and operated museum in the State of Florida.   The current museum building opened to the public in 1972 and is located on Highway 98 in the heart of historic downtown Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

The museum houses interpretative exhibits depicting 12,000 years of Native American occupation.  Over 1,000 artifacts of stone, bone, clay and shell are here, as well as one of the finest collections of prehistoric ceramics in the Southeastern United States. Exhibits also include artifacts from the European Explorers, local pirates, and early settlers. 

After the museum you tour the Temple Mound.  The prehistoric temple mound represents one of the most outstanding artifacts left by the early inhabitants of this community. It was built as a ceremonial and political center between 800-1400AD.  This mound is thought to be the largest on salt water and possibly the largest prehistoric earthwork on the Gulf Coast, measuring12 feet tall and 223 feet across its base. An estimated 200,000 basket loads of earth were used to create this earthen structure.

In 1964 the Temple Mound was designated a National Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Historic Register. The original temple sat atop of the mound and was used as the residence of the leader, a temple for religious ceremonies, and a place to direct the activities of the village. It was and still is a sacred burial ground.

After the Mound Builders abandoned the mound in the 1500’s, the mound lay dormant; its history quiet as European explorers moved through the area. Interest in the mound would not rekindle until the Civil War in 1861 when Confederate soldiers of the Walton Guard encamped here to guard the waterway known as “The Narrows”. The soldiers displayed curiosities taken from the mound in a small museum tent. Unfortunately, the tent was set ablaze by enemy troops, destroying the artifacts. In 1883 the mound was examined by the Smithsonian Institution and has since been excavated nine times to reveal artifacts and information about the people who once called this community their home.

The first of the three buildings on the backside of the Temple Mound is the Camp Walton Schoolhouse Museum.  The schoolhouse  is a historic two-room structure that maintains and interprets items from the early history of Camp Walton and education in the county covering the years 1911 to the 1930’s. 

 

The schoolhouse was originally located across the street from the present day Chamber of Commerce on Main Street (Highway 98). It has been moved three different times.

This building was the first schoolhouse constructed for the children of Camp Walton, later to be Fort Walton Beach. Local citizens built the school of native pine and oak in 1911. When the school opened in 1912, there were 15 students and one teacher. Eight grades were taught in this one-room school.
  
 

In 1927 another room was added to the building for the high school students, grades 9 to 12 and their teacher.

In 1936 the school was closed when the new all brick Fort Walton School was built. The old school building was purchased by John Brooks of the Gulf View Motor Company and moved to Fourth and Tupelo. It was used as apartments for several families during World War II. The building was eventually sold to Dr. and Mrs. Langston who continued to use it as rentals. By the 1970’s the building had been left to deteriorate. It was scheduled to be burned by the fire department, but members of the Junior Service League convinced the owners to donate the building to become a historic museum.

The preservation of the school building was undertaken by the Junior Service League and the Okaloosa County School Board in 1974. They moved the school to First Street and opened the building to the public as an educational museum in 1976. In 1986 the City of Fort Walton Beach assumed the operation of the building and its programs. It continued to serve as an educational museum for fieldtrips and summer visitors through 2005.

In January 2006 the Camp Walton Schoolhouse Museum was moved to join the Indian Temple Mound Museum, the Fort Walton Temple Mound and the Garnier Post Office Museum to create a Heritage Park. The buildings are now open for visitors six days a week and its education programs are conducted by the Museum Division, City of Fort Walton Beach.

 

Directly behind the schoolhouse you will find the Garnier Post Office Museum.  This museum interprets items from the early postal era of this county covering the years 1918 to 1956.

Mr. Euphrates A. Mooney was appointed postmaster of the original Garnier Post Office in 1906. It was located on the beach of Garnier’s Bayou, in the corner of a mercantile store called “The E. A. Mooney and Company.”  When the mail began coming from Crestview in 1918, the older post office was deserted and a new one built at the junction of Mooney and Garnier Post Roads. In 1918 Mooney assumed his duties at the new Garnier’s Post Office.

Mr. Mooney came to this country from Germany, where he was an accomplished musician, vocalist and piano tuner. After Mr. Mooney’s death in 1935, Mrs. Julia Mooney succeeded her husband as the postmaster and served for over 28 years as postmistress.

The mail came by boat from Pensacola and overland six miles from Mary Esther. The mail boat then chugged on to Boggy Bayou staying overnight and returning to Pensacola the next day. Many times, so the story goes, Mrs. Mooney paddled a boat to a region of Camp Pinchot Road and then up the Bayou to pick up her mail from a truck.

Mrs. Mooney gave the people their mail day or night, whenever they called for it. Some people travelled as much as 28 miles to get their mail, but old timers say that the rural routes finally killed the Garnier Post Office. When the mail was delivered to homes by postal carriers, small rural post offices were no longer effective and soon were phased out. This post office was phased out before Mrs. Mooney’s death in 1956.

The Garnier Post Office was moved behind the Camp Walton Schoolhouse Museum on First Street in 1986. The Junior Service League of Fort Walton Beach restored the Garnier Post Office in conjunction with the City of Fort Walton Beach over the next few years. The opening and dedication of the restored building was held on May 1st, 1988 with Congressman Earl Hutto attending.

In January 2006 the Garnier Post Office Museum was moved to its current location and is now part of The City of Fort Walton Beach Heritage Park and Cultural Center. It is open to the public and its education programs are conducted by the Museum Division, City of Fort Walton Beach. 

 

The last building behind the schoolhouse is the Civil War Exhibit Building.  When you walk up to this building, you will first see three flags flown by the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War. As you walk into the building you will notice a large diorama depicting a typical campsite for a soldier stationed here during the war: tent, clothes hanging on a line, and various personal items. Looking around the museum, you will see panels featuring information about Florida’s secession, slavery in Florida, prisoners of war, Pensacola’s strategic importance, Battle of Santa Rosa Sound, Western Theater, the Florida Brigade, Olustee monument, Walton Guards, and Camp Walton.

The Civil War Exhibit Building was built behind the Camp Walton Schoolhouse Museum in 2010.