Fort Walton Beach, often referred to by the initialism FWB, is a city in southern Okaloosa County, Florida, United States.

Its busiest time of the year is the summer, causing a boost to the local economy because of seasonal human migration.

Fort Walton also appeared to come about due to contact with the major Mississippian centers to the north and west.

The Fort Walton peoples put into practice mound building and intensive agriculture, made pottery in a variety of vessel shapes, and had hierarchical settlement patterns that reflected other Mississippian societies.

The first Europeans to set foot in what is now Okaloosa County and the Fort Walton Beach area were members of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca's party, who traveled by boat from what is now Panama City Beach, Florida in 1528 to Texas, "Then we set out to sea again, coasting towards the River of Palms.

In later English and French maps the area was noted as "Baya Santa Rosa" or "Bay St. Rose".

A number of Spanish artifacts, including a portion of brigantine leather armor, are housed in the Indian Temple Mound Museum.

Notable raids occurred in 1683 and 1687 against the Spanish fort at San Marcos de Apalachee (by French and English buccaneers), a 1712 raid against Port Dauphin (now Alabama) by English pirates from Martinique, and the actions of the late 18th-century adventurer William Augustus Bowles, who was based in Apalachicola.

During the era of Spanish and English colonization, the area of what was to become Fort Walton Beach was noted in several journals but no worthwhile presence was established.

[9] Camp Walton was located between the Indian Temple Mound, now known as the Heritage Park and Cultural Center, and the Santa Rosa Sound, its mission was to protect the "Narrows" from Union ships.

The post was abandoned in August 1862, and the "Walton Guards" were assigned to reinforce the 1st Florida Infantry Regiment, with duty in the Western Theatre on the Tennessee front.

[9] On April 11, 1879, John Thomas Brooks purchased at a public auction in Milton, Florida, 111 acres in Section 24, Township 2, Range 24 of Santa Rosa County, a portion of the property of Henry Penny whose heirs had failed to pay the taxes on the estate.

The county paid the federal government $4,000 to complete the transaction, the result of the efforts of Congressman Bob Sikes.

The remaining Tower Beach summer cottages were removed after the 1955 tourist season as the new Okaloosa Island Authority redeveloped the site with a new hotel and casino.

Fort Walton Beach experiences hot and very humid summers, generally from late May to mid-September.

They provide non-stop service to Atlanta, Cincinnati, Charlotte, Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Las Vegas, Knoxville, Memphis, Oklahoma City, and St. Louis.

State Road 85 is a north–south highway that leads north 27 mi (43 km) to Crestview, the Okaloosa County seat (also along Interstate 10), and ends at US 98 in downtown Fort Walton Beach.

The Brooks Bridge over the Santa Rosa Sound connects downtown Fort Walton Beach with Okaloosa Island, which is along the route of US 98.

[34] Eglin is geographically one of the largest Air Force bases at 724 square miles (1,880 km2), and thus home to joint exercises, and missile and bomb testing.

[36] According to Fort Walton Beach's 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,[37] the top employers in the city were: