Santa Rosa County is a county located in the northwestern portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2020, the population was 188,000. The county seat is Milton, which lies in the geographic center of the county. Other major communities within Santa Rosa County are Navarre, Pace, and Gulf Breeze. Navarre is the most populated community with a population of approximately 45,000 residents. Santa Rosa County is included in the Pensacola—Ferry Pass—Brent, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which also includes Escambia County.
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 in the Gulf of Mexico. As of the 2000 census, the community had a total population of 2,738. It has been described as "famous" for its ultra-white sand beaches.
The Florida panhandle is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida. It is a salient roughly 200 miles (320 km) long, bordered by Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Its eastern boundary is arbitrarily defined. It is defined by its southern culture and rural geography relative to the rest of Florida, as well as closer cultural links to French-influenced Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Its major communities include Pensacola, Navarre, Destin, Panama City Beach, and Tallahassee.
The Emerald Coast is an unofficial name for the coastal area in the US state of Florida on the Gulf of Mexico that stretches about 100 miles (160 km) through five counties, Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, and Bay, which include Pensacola Beach, Navarre Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Destin, and Panama City Beach. Some south Alabama communities on the coast of Baldwin County, such as Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, and Fort Morgan embrace the term as well.
The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) is a federally protected marine area offshore of California's Big Sur and central coast in the United States. It is the largest US national marine sanctuary and has a shoreline length of 276 miles (444 km) stretching from just north of the Golden Gate Bridge at San Francisco to Cambria in San Luis Obispo County. Supporting one of the world's most diverse marine ecosystems, it is home to numerous mammals, seabirds, fishes, invertebrates and plants in a remarkably productive coastal environment. The MBNMS was established in 1992 for the purpose of resource protection, research, education, and public use.
Navarre is a census-designated place and unincorporated community in Santa Rosa County in the northwest Florida Panhandle. It is a major bedroom community for mostly U.S. military personnel, federal civil servants, local population, retirees and defense contractors. Due to Navarre Beach and the 4 miles (6.4 km) of beach front on the Gulf of Mexico thereof, as well as several miles of beaches within the Navarre Beach Marine Park and the Gulf Islands National Seashore, it has a small, but rapidly growing community of nature enthusiasts and tourists. Navarre has grown from being a small town of around 1,500 in 1970 to a town with a population estimated at 43,540 as of 2022, if including both the Navarre and Navarre Beach Census Designated Places. The Navarre CDP recorded a population of 40,817 at the 2020 census.
Gulf Islands National Seashore is an American National seashore that offers recreation opportunities and preserves natural and historic resources along the Gulf of Mexico barrier islands of Florida and Mississippi. In 2023, it was the fifth-most visited unit of the National Park Service.
Perdido Key is an unincorporated community located in Escambia County, Florida, United States, between the cities of Pensacola, Florida and Orange Beach, Alabama. The community is located on and named for Perdido Key, a barrier island in northwest Florida and southeast Alabama. "Perdido" means "lost" in the Spanish and Portuguese languages. The Florida district of the Gulf Islands National Seashore includes the east end of the island, as well as other Florida islands. No more than a few hundred yards wide in most places, Perdido Key stretches some 16 miles (26 km) from near Pensacola to Perdido Pass Bridge near Orange Beach.
Santa Rosa County District Schools (SRCDS), also known as Santa Rosa County School District, is the organization responsible for the administration of public schools in Santa Rosa County, Florida. The district currently administers 15 elementary schools, seven middle schools, six high schools, and two K-8 schools, as well as a number of specialized centers.
Hurricane Erin was the first hurricane to strike the contiguous United States since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The fifth tropical cyclone, fifth named storm, and second hurricane of the unusually active 1995 Atlantic hurricane season, Erin developed from a tropical wave near the southeastern Bahamas on July 31. Moving northwestward, the cyclone intensified into a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale near Rum Cay about 24 hours later. After a brief jog to the north-northwest on August 1, Erin began moving to the west-northwest. The cyclone then moved over the northwestern Bahamas, including the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama. Early on August 2, Erin made landfall near Vero Beach, Florida, with winds of 85 mph (137 km/h). The hurricane weakened while crossing the Florida peninsula and fell to tropical storm intensity before emerging into the Gulf of Mexico later that day.
Whipple Dam State Park is a Pennsylvania state park on 256 acres (104 ha) in Jackson Township, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania in the United States. Whipple Lake is a man-made lake on 22 acres (8.9 ha) that was originally built during the height of the lumber era that swept through Pennsylvania in the late 19th and early 20th century to supply power for a sawmill. Whipple Dam State Park is 12 miles (19 km) south of State College, just east of Pennsylvania Route 26.
Spring Lake Regional Park is a 320-acre (130 ha) public park in southeastern Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California, United States. Centered on the Santa Rosa Creek Reservoir, the park is administered by the Sonoma County Regional Parks Department. Its coordinates are 38.45°N 122.65°W, and its official address is 391 Violetti Drive.
The effects of Hurricane Dennis in Florida included 14 deaths and $1.5 billion in damage. The tropical wave that became Hurricane Dennis formed on June 29, 2005, and proceeded westward across the Atlantic Ocean. It became a tropical depression on July 4, a tropical storm on July 5, and a hurricane on July 7. Dennis rapidly intensified to attain Category 4 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, and made landfall in Cuba where it weakened to Category 1 status, before re-emerging in the Gulf of Mexico and re–intensifying. The storm made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on Santa Rosa Island on July 10.
Cupsogue Beach County Park is a 296-acre (1.20 km2) park at the eastern end of Fire Island and the western end of Westhampton Island, known locally as Dune Road, one of Long Island's easternmost barrier islands. The Atlantic Ocean, Moriches Inlet and Moriches Bay surround the park.
The Florida Reef is the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States. It lies a few miles seaward of the Florida Keys, is about 4 miles wide and extends 270 km (170 mi) from Fowey Rocks just east of Soldier Key to just south of the Marquesas Keys. The system encompasses more than 6,000 individual reefs. Florida waters are home to over 500 marine fish and mammal species along with more than 45 species of stony corals and 35 species of octocorals.
Duxbury Reef State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA) is a marine protected area located about 1 mile (2 km) west of Bolinas in Marin County on California’s north central coast. This marine protected area covers 0.66 square miles (1.7 km2). Duxbury Reef SMCA prohibits the take of all living marine resources, except the recreational take of finfish from shore only and the recreational take of abalone.
Schooner Gulch State Beach is a public beach located in Mendocino County, California. It is located approximately 50 miles northwest of Santa Rosa. The park is famous for Bowling Ball Beach, where visitors can view natural spherical sandstone concretions at low tide. The beach offers a scenic spot along the Mendocino coast and a stunning place for watching sunsets. Visitors to the beach come to surf, fish, and picnic. Hiking is also a very popular activity at this beach, and there are multiple trails along the coast.
The Florida Public Archaeology Network, or FPAN, is a state supported organization of regional centers dedicated to public outreach and assisting Florida municipalities and the Florida Division of Historical Resources "to promote the stewardship and protection of Florida's archaeological resources." FPAN was established in 2004, upon legislation that sought to establish a "Florida network of public archaeology centers to help stem the rapid deterioration of this state's buried past and to expand public interest in archaeology."
The effects of Hurricane Isaac in Florida were severe local flooding in South Florida and tornadoes in Central and Northern Florida in August 2012. Hurricane Isaac formed from a tropical wave while located east of the Lesser Antilles on August 21, 2012. The storm moved westward, crossed through the Leeward Islands, and entered the Caribbean Sea on August 22. Isaac initially struggled to intensify and defied predictions of it strengthening into a hurricane. The storm made its first landfall in Haiti as a midgrade tropical storm prior to making a second one in Cuba later that day. It remained somewhat disorganized while moving through the Straits of Florida and passed near the Florida Keys on August 27. The storm threatened to strike the Tampa Bay Area during the 2012 Republican National Convention and move ashore in the Florida Panhandle as a major hurricane. However, it continued northwestward and avoided landfall in the state. The storm finally became a hurricane late on August 28. Isaac made two landfalls in Louisiana on August 29, the first near the mouth of the Mississippi River and the other near Port Fourchon. The storm steadily weakened and eventually dissipated over Missouri on September 1.
County Line Beach is a beach located in Solromar, California, an unincorporated community of Ventura County. This stretch of sandy beach is easily accessible from the adjacent Pacific Coast Highway. This surf spot popularized by the Beach Boys in their 1963 hit song "Surfin' U.S.A." is administered by the California State Parks' Malibu Sector Coastal Lifeguard Program in addition to Leo Carrillo State Park. The beach lies within the south coast portion of Ventura County amidst a mostly rugged coastline that is some of the most striking and diverse coastal terrain in the County and a backdrop for many televised car scenes. The beach lies at the mouth of a canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains that hugs the shore along the Ventura County's south coast.
