Editing Shalimar, Florida (section)

==History==
During the [[First World War]] Germany stopped shipping dye to the United States. Silas Gibson was contracted to build a dye plant at Black Pointe.<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 23, 1981 |title=Okaloosa Pioneer dead at age 95 |work=[[Playground News]]|pages=2B}}</ref> W. N. Hartgrove taught at a school at the dye plant.<ref>{{Cite news |date=June 5, 1920 |title=Garniers |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87062268/1920-06-05/ed-1/seq-2/ |work=[[The Pensacola Journal]] |pages=2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=April 17, 1920 |title=Garniers |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87062268/1920-04-17/ed-1/seq-8/ |work=[[The Pensacola Journal]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=May 10, 1920 |title=Garniers |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87062268/1920-05-10/ed-1/seq-4/ |work=[[The Pensacola Journal]] |pages=4}}</ref> Dances and a "Hallowe'en social" would be hosted at the dye plant.<ref>{{Cite news |date=January 2, 1919 |title=Garniers Bayou |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87062268/1919-01-02/ed-1/seq-4/ |work=[[The Pensacola Journal]] |pages=4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=November 3, 1917 |title=Garniers |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87062268/1917-11-03/ed-1/seq-5/ |work=[[The Pensacola Journal]] |pages=5}}</ref> The plant would close sometime in the early 1920s. In the 1950s, a myth would spread that 130 Germans operated the dye plant and it was "actually an explosives factory and probably a submarine base as well."<ref>Angell, Joseph W., "History of the Army Air Forces Proving Ground Command - Part One - Background of Eglin Field  1933-1940", The Historical Branch, Army Air Forces Proving Ground Command, Eglin Field, Florida, 1944, reprint by Office of History, Munitions Systems Division, Eglin AFB, Florida, 1989, page 34.</ref><ref>Fort Walton Beach, Florida, "The Eglin Story: Germans Operated a Plant To Make Dye at Port Dixie", ''[[Playground News]]'', Thursday October 6, 1955, Volume 9, Number 87, page 3.</ref>

"In February 1927, the [[Choctawhatchee and Northern Railroad]] was chartered 'To construct, acquire, maintain, lease, or operate a line of railroad or railroads from a point between Galliver and Crestview on the [[Louisville and Nashville Railroad]] in [[Okaloosa County]], to a point in said county on [[Choctawhatchee Bay]], a distance of approximately twenty-eight miles.' On Garnier's Bayou near the present [[Eglin Air Force Base|Eglin]] ([[Air Force Base]]) housing development of Shalimar, a $29,000,000 Port Dixie Harbor and Terminal Company was chartered to build wharves for liners, a rail line north, and a city of one square mile, with streets 100 feet wide."<ref>Angell, Joseph W., "History of the Army Air Forces Proving Ground Command - Part One - Background of Eglin Field 1933-1940", The Historical Branch, Army Air Forces Proving Ground Command, Eglin Field, Florida, 1944, reprint by Office of History, Munitions Systems Division, Eglin AFB, Florida, 1989, pages 36-37.</ref> These ambitious plans would not see fruition.

Originally an area called "''Port Dixie''", the town "sprang up out of the woods" in 1943–1944, as a [[plat|platted]] community of 160 houses to be used as housing for military officers by developer Clifford H. Meigs.<ref name="Fort Walton 1948, page 1">Fort Walton, Florida, "Shalimar Strides Into Second Year", ''[[Playground News]]'', Thursday July 1, 1948, Volume 3, Number 22, page 1.</ref>

Badly needed new homes were constructed beginning in 1942, by Clifford Meigs and his associates to provide adequate facilities for commissioned officers assigned at the rapidly expanding [[Eglin Field]], immediately north of what was initially referred to as "Shalimar Park". This land was acquired from [[James E. Plew]]. The first 50 homes were almost complete by May, with another 25 underway, with the entire project costing approximately $350,000. The Plew Heights housing project near [[Valparaiso, Florida]] had been erected in 1941 to take care of civil service employees and enlisted personnel, but the government made no provision for commissioned officers.<ref>Crestview, Florida, "Shalimar Project In Use - Families Of Officers Now Moving Into New Spacious Quarters",  ''[[Northwest Florida Daily News|Okaloosa News-Journal]]'', Friday May 15, 1942, Volume 28, Number 17, page 1.</ref>

A new post office opened in Shalimar on July 1, 1943, with Clifford H. Meigs serving as the first postmaster. Previously, mail for the new community was handled through Valparaiso, Florida.<ref>Crestview, Florida, "Shalimar Now Has New Post Office", ''[[Northwest Florida Daily News|Okaloosa News-Journal]]'', Friday July 3, 1943, Volume 30, Number 20, page 1.</ref>

The "'''''Town of Shalimar'''''" was officially incorporated as a municipality in June 1947, and Clifford Meigs served as its first mayor. The incorporation was directly related to state law that prohibited clubs in unincorporated areas from staying open from midnight Saturday until Monday morning, which would negatively impact the gambling operations at the casino of the Shalimar Club, the opening of which "was the social event of 1947."<ref name="Dobson, Henry Allen 1974">Dobson, Henry Allen, "A History of Okaloosa County, Florida", A Thesis Presented to the Graduate Faculty of [[Southeastern Louisiana University]], June 1974.</ref><ref name=ShaInc/><ref name=ShalInco/> The [[Fort Walton Beach]] [sic - [[Fort Walton]] did not become Fort Walton Beach until June, 1953] places were doing a booming business on the weekends while there were rumors that the sheriff might enforce the law in Shalimar and close the place there," Meigs told the ''[[Northwest Florida Daily News|Playground News]]'' in 1959. "The owner came to me and suggested incorporation, and while I didn't think I had much to gain then, I agreed. With only about three other freeholders in the area, it was a simple matter to get incorporated."<ref name="Holland, Elizabeth E. 1990">Holland, Elizabeth E., staff writer, "Our Town", ''[[Northwest Florida Daily News]]'', Fort Walton Beach, Florida, Monday 25 June 1990.</ref> The reprieve on gambling would be temporary, however. "The collapse of Okaloosa gambling was brought about by the glare of outside publicity, reform zeal from within and the direct intervention of Gov. [[Fuller Warren]]. The first wind of adversity was blown by the ''[[Tampa Tribune]]'''s exposé of gambling in Fort Walton."<ref name="Dobson, Henry Allen 1974"/> The 1949 article led to the governor suspending Okaloosa County Sheriff Isle Enzor and two constables in 1950, for failure to enforce the state gambling laws. The popular Enzor was reelected in 1952, but gambling was on the way out. "Back on the job and converted to the cause, Sheriff Enzor began cracking down, and soon even the Shalimar Club was turning to more 'legitimate' forms of entertainment. But without gambling, it was just another nightspot. The Shalimar closed for good in 1956."<ref>Jackson, Harvey H., "The Rise and Decline of the Redneck Riviera: An Inside History of the Florida-Alabama Coast", [[University of Georgia Press]], Athens, Georgia, 2012, [[Library of Congress]] control number 2011040110, {{ISBN|978-0-8203-3400-4}}, Chapter Three, "Bring 'em Down, Keep 'em Happy, And Keep 'em Spending", pages 46-47.</ref>

In 1948, the town features included the Shalimar Store, the Shalimar Service Station, and lumberman and Shalimar resident Roger Clary's Shalimar Club. The 160 residences were rented through Shalimar Homes and Meigs Homes corporations.<ref name="Fort Walton 1948, page 1"/>

In 1950, the 280-car capacity Florida Drive-In Theatre, erected at a cost of ~$40,000, at the junction of Ferry Road and State Road 85, later Eglin Parkway, the main road between the air force base and [[Fort Walton, Florida]], opened on Thursday, June 15, with an [[Esther Williams]] picture, "''[[On an Island with You]]''".<ref>Fort Walton, Florida, "New Florida Drive-In Sets Formal Opening", ''[[Playground News]]'', Thursday June 15, 1950, Volume 5, Number 20, pages 1, 8.</ref> Operated by the James K. Tringas family, that also built the Tringas Theatre in Fort Walton in 1940, (which is, ironically, still in business and being refurbished to its former glory in 2019), the drive-in would close in the fall of 1973. This property is now occupied by the Shalimar United Methodist Church family life center and a furniture store, which property is also owned by the church.
[[File:Mayor Clifford Meigs.png|thumb|205x205px|Clifford Meigs, the first mayor of Shalimar.]]
The Louis Woodham Concrete Company, which would provide construction materials for the growing Shalimar area, was established at Dixie Point at the end of Ferry Road by 1956,<ref>Display advert, ''[[Northwest Florida Daily News|Okaloosa News-Journal]]'', Crestview, Florida, Thursday October 4, 1956, Volume 42, Number 40, page 8.</ref> and would survive into the late 1970s, before being replaced by condominiums. It was regularly supplied by [[towboat]]s with barges of raw materials which transited across the [[Choctawhatchee Bay]] from the [[Intracoastal Waterway]] on the south edge of the bay. A Coast Guard tripod navigation marker in the bay just offshore of Meig's Beach, Port Dixie, was removed after merchant commerce ceased to Ferry Point. The end of water deliveries to Ferry Point marked the last gasp of "Port Dixie" as once envisioned.

Clifford Meigs served as mayor until his death in 1960, and was succeeded by his brother Clyde Meigs in November, who had served as a councilman.<ref>Fort Walton Beach, Florida, "Clyde Meigs Named Mayor of Shalimar", ''[[Playground News]]'', November 15, 1960, Volume 15, Number "43" (actually 44), page 1.</ref> The first elected mayor was James P. Tras, in 1965, followed by Sarah Tras for a two to three-year term. She had been married to Clifford Meigs at the time of his death, and is the wife of Jim Tras, {{As of|2009|lc=y}}.<ref name="Holland, Elizabeth E. 1990"/> Residential Meigs Drive, paralleling the Choctawhatchee Bay, Clifford Drive and Sara Drive are all named for the town's founding family. Carl Brandt Drive and [[Grandison Gardner|Gardner Drive]] are named for former [[Eglin AFB]] commanders.

During [[World War II]], Eglin water range 60 was located in the bay immediately south of Port Dixie, with a battleship-size target float anchored off of Black Pointe.

The [[Lake Lorraine]] area  at Black Pointe to the east of the incorporated Shalimar community was developed in the 1970s, but carries a Shalimar postal address.

The [http://poquitobayou.com/ Poquito Bayou] area north of the incorporated Shalimar also carries a Shalimar postal address.

The mostly residential area of [[Okaloosa County]] between Shalimar and Lake Lorraine continues to be referred to as Port Dixie.