Crab Island’s history traced from a once-dry sandbar to today’s boating destination

On the Okaloosa County Public Information Office podcast Flashback, local historians and longtime residents described how the shallow sandbar north of the Destin (Marler) Bridge evolved from a partly dry, vegetation‑covered spit into the submerged recreation site now called Crab Island.

The discussion focused on historical maps, newspaper archives and memories from residents who used the spit for picnics and crabbing in the 1950s and 1960s. Guests said the sandbar has been called Sand Island and Bird Island and that newspapers first used the name “Crab Island” in the early 1990s.

Why it matters: Crab Island is a prominent local tourism draw and the site of frequent boating and anchoring; understanding how it formed and how the name developed informs local history and coastal management conversations and helps explain changes in navigation, shoreline and habitat that residents and public safety officials have observed.

Gareth Stearns, a history teacher at Choctawhatchee High School, showed maps and archival newspapers on the podcast to illustrate how the east side of the Destin East Pass and the tip of…