the first day we ever said i love you we were on the western lake we fell in love right there
on the western lake that's right right here in great beach we came here for a uh like a
long weekend getaway and you know it was not only did we fall in love we fell in love with
this area and we fell in love with grayton beach specifically i just remember leaving
here and feeling like this was a place that wasn't touched as much as the rest of the world
there's something very special about this place
something almost sacred and whatever it is has been drawing people to grayton beach
since the late 1800s when this tiny grain of a beach town first washed ashore
grayton is the apple of my eye always has been always will be the day school was out
we all piled in the car and came to grayton beach and i have literally ridden a horse
not all at one time from destin to inlet beach and the only thing you ever saw on the beach
was cow dung and sea oats you never saw a structure you never saw a human being the the
waters would be flat slick calm and the cows would wade out into the water so their stomachs would be
wet to keep themselves cool and i can't tell you how many times i had to tether my horse and get
out and go out in the water and get the cows back up where we could drive them where we wanted to go
but it was magic everything you did was magic a lot of it's the history uh it is one you
know the oldest community on the beach down here along 38 was the start of everything if
it would have turned out a lot different if it would have started somewhere else that's for sure
and i think people come here and they're kind of blown away that they're still uh
intact community uh and families like kelly's family like mr patterson's family
they go back generations that just houses are handed down from generation to generation
and in each one of these generations just respect what this community is about
and again it's not just the buildings it's really the people that make it as cool as it is i kind of
describe it as uh the last great florida beach town it's uh it's got everything going its way
you've got a state park that surrounds it on three sides you've got the gulf of mexico to the south
you have still a pretty intact community uh that's well over a hundred years old and it's a place
that's got history and even though florida i think saint augustine is the oldest city in the nation
florida is losing its history in so many places and this place still has that unique fabric and
unique feel about it and i think it's because of that uh how i would describe it as just
the real deal the real florida and part of what what makes great and so special is that it's
always been a little more private and a little more subdued than some of the surrounding areas
i grew up when there was really nothing to do down here except stand out in that street
right there and go to the beach there was no this was the only place that was open uh
there were no grocery stores there were no movie theaters there were no bars there was nothing but
basically this and a few other little places like this these people didn't have
the public's of the winn-dixies you know if they if they had something they either good
or killed it or made it you have to remember how remote this place was i mean this place was
i can't describe how remote it was but before the destin bridge
you couldn't get here nobody else was coming into grayton it was still the old rags to riches and
grayton was rags and the riches weren't here yet it was it was a lot of fun i remember cleaning
fish on the bar at great corner cafe so they'd have fish for their for the evening dinner rush so
fishing off great was very different we launched the boats right off the beach into the surf
as far as i know it's the last place in the continental united states where it's done
they do it in australia new zealand a few places in the bahamas they do in alaska with tractors
and bulldozers in a few places but we we back the boat straight down the sand into the gulf
so we're in the gulf immediately we're not having to idle out of
a harbor run out of pass we can be fishing literally within five minutes of stepping on
the boat a lot of days it's it's a experience that most people don't don't ever get to have
it's beautiful i think once we start explaining and painting that picture of grayton beach to
people they instantly can kind of put themselves there because you can talk about the cars on the
beach you know this this coastal dune lake that you can put your paddle board in and literally
ride into the ocean and start kind of explaining this and people just instantly want to be here and
and when they get here they they get it you know they they they get it when they get here
yeah it's just everybody wants to come to grayton beach i mean i i have friends from
birmingham that's bought places in great beach they didn't want any place except in green beach
so it's just got that feel to it you know that uniqueness that people love
most of the people that grew up around here a lot of them live down here now it's always
been a special place it's grown up way more than we ever thought it would be most of us
looked at grayton is our sanctuary and we we kind of
we didn't look too favorably on new people coming in outsiders you know but when i was a teenager
and really a preteen the store was the place to go i mean you went every single night at
the store which is now currently the red bar but it was a hangout it wasn't just for great people
i mean everyone would come from freeport from blue mountain from seagrove every night all night until
probably 10 or 11 at night and they had uh the inside was very similar to what it looks like
today except of course it was covered in graffiti because that's what the way it was decorated
and in the corner where there's now a corner booth there wasn't there was a um a jukebox
the jukebox mr butler i guess at one point decided he wasn't going to pay for a change of songs
so the song stayed for 10 years the same songs and so we would dance every single night to proud mary
one is the loneliest number and crystal blue persuasion all these kind of old-timey songs
that we loved but preserving grayton beach's authenticity certainly didn't happen by accident
in fact it often required bold actions taken by even bolder locals nobody knew what was
going on and except one day uh a bulldozer shows up and my mother and another woman um
bit of a bird saw what was happening and they they said well we we're just gonna have to lie
down in front of this bulldozer so they will stop they will not run over us and that kind
of got everyone's attention and i only wish that everybody who got a permit to drive on that beach
knew the story because it took one woman in her courage to save that beach and it
really resonates with me that any one person can do something you set your mind to it and damn her
mind was on it yeah and she was tenacious she was unbelievable and tenacious we we need the tourist
dollar to maintain all of this and so we have to make sure that that beach stays as pristine as
we possibly can make it treat it like it was your own backyard you know don't trash it up uh respect
people that are down there you know we have this is this is still considered a local's beach
and what they need to do is to understand that this place is almost ethereal that it's sacred
not only the amazing beach but there's a natural place amazing place to watch birds
to get out there get active on the trails get out on the lake uh there's just so much to do
you just gotta come see it you gotta check it out you got to come experience and i think everybody
can when you come to grayton beach i think you just feel like yourself it does feel like home
you don't have to try it i think it's just it is what it is here and it's beautiful
yeah changes here and a lot's happened in the last 40 years and probably a lot more will happen
in the future we're just hoping as a community we're setting a good example so that others who
are going to take as we pass on we'll be able to take and take the baton and move further down the
road with it but it's worth it's worth protecting it's worth knowing about and i think we've got an
awesome community that's behind it yeah there's just a spirit about grayton that just inspires
you to get out and and do something and if it's raining to go inside and create something i hope
that that that we're able to keep things unchanged to an extent um but with those changes uh
allowing you know these locals and and this these meeting of the minds to help
you know develop it into something that feels unchanged and they have to understand that
what's here god put here for the stewardship of the people
that are here to use and to preserve and to appreciate it like those of us
that came before them if i had to describe grayton beach in two words it would be funky and organic
the soul soul soul of 30a is grain beach
unique and life-changing
two words to describe great beach are beautiful and friendly truth be told there
probably aren't enough words in the dictionary to adequately describe the magic of grayton beach
one thing is certain though we all owe such a deep debt of gratitude to those pioneering
souls who arrive before us settlers who not only appreciated this very special place for what it is
but for those who had the foresight the fortitude and the fight to help keep grayton beach
a special place for generations to come it was the most pristine beautiful place you've ever
laid your eyes on and as a young kid i understood that i don't know how and i can't tell you how but
one of the things that once we started driving a car on highway 98 from pensacola to here my mother
would always stop the car i mean literally stopped the car at the top of the destin bridge and she'd
say i want you to look at that because there's nothing like it anyplace else in the world you
know what i've been all over the world and i've never found anything like it it is truly a gift