Brief History of Navarre Florida.

Before it was named Navarre, the land was called Eagan.  

Guy Wyman, though he was not the first settler to the area, is credited as being the founder of the beach community of Navarre, Florida, named after a favorite province in Spain.

While serving as a surveyor in the U.S. Army, Colonel Guy Wyman first visited the area that would eventually become Navarre in 1905. He surveyed the coastline from Fort Barrancas to Destin’s East Pass. At the time, a dozen or so families lived in the Navarre area.

Wyman’s father, Peter, accompanied him on the surveying trip and fell in love with Navarre. Eventually he and his wife, Emily, purchased property and moved from Illinois to a spot about two miles east of the present-day Navarre Beach Bridge. They intended to spend their retirement fishing and gardening on the shores of the inter-coastal waterway now called Navarre Sound.

Peter and Emily were tragically murdered in Navarre by the Roberts brothers. The Roberts brothers thought the Wymans had a lot of money, tried to rob them, and ended up murdering them. A small amount of money was taken along with watches, silverware, and jewelry. Some of the loot was hidden in the bushes beside Williams Creek where it was found and used as evidence at the trial.

In 1915, six months after the death of his parents, Guy Wyman returned to the area from a deployment to the Philippines. Then, after serving in World War I, he retired and once again returned to the area. During World War I, he fell in love with a French nurse, Noelle. The only way for her to legally come to the US was through adoption. That’s right, he could legally adopt her and bring her as his “child.”

Wyman went on to acquire about 5 miles of sound front property and a substantial portion of what is now downtown Navarre. When he platted the town in 1925, he named it Navarre after a province in northern Spain that was a favorite of his first wife, Noelle. He had dreams of creating a tourist resort.  

Wyman platted and named the community in 1925, but made no steps toward development. During the Great Depression, the Wymans could not pay taxes on the property and were forced to sell some of the land to Santa Rosa County.  He also donated some of his land. This was the beginning of Navarre as public land and part of that property is what eventually became Navarre Park. . 

In 1930 and 1931, Wyman served as an engineer in the construction of the original Pensacola Bay Bridge.  After later moving to Valparaiso, Florida, he served as an engineer at Eglin Air Force Base. Following his second retirement at Eglin, Wyman became Chief of Police for Valparaiso, a position he held until his death in 1953.