As we celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary, the America250 initiative invites us to trace the federal investments that turned raw coastline into public treasure. At St. Andrews State Park, a proud member of the Adventures Unbound family, we are honoring the Depression-era vision that reshaped how Americans thought about their public lands, a vision that includes the Civilian Conservation Corps and the broader New Deal programs that transformed Florida’s Gulf Coast.

A Different Kind of Federal Service

St. Andrews State Park occupies land with a uniquely layered federal history. While the CCC was building state parks across Florida in the 1930s, this stretch of Panama City Beach coastline was claimed for a different purpose. In 1942, the War Department selected the site for a Temporary Harbor Defense installation, emplacing two 155mm guns to guard Liberty Ship lanes from German U-boats. Soldiers from the 166th Infantry Regiment were stationed here through 1944. The guns were never fired in combat.

The state purchased the land in 1947 at just $2.50 per acre, and the park opened to the public in 1951. But the story connects to the CCC through the broader Florida Panhandle. Across northwest Florida, CCC camps operated in the Choctawhatchee National Forest, where enrollees planted trees, built fire towers, and developed recreation infrastructure. At Florida Caverns State Park in nearby Jackson County, CCC workers constructed the trails, buildings, and visitor facilities that opened Florida’s only publicly accessible cave system. Their work established the model for state park development that St. Andrews would later follow.

The CCC’s legacy in Florida is staggering: approximately 49,000 men served in 31 camps statewide, planting over 13 million trees and directly building eight state parks. Shell Island itself was created when the Gulf-Bay Pass was constructed in the 1930s, reshaping the coastline during the same era the CCC was reshaping Florida’s relationship with its wild places.

Where Two Federal Legacies Meet the Shore

Today, St. Andrews State Park carries the fingerprints of both Depression-era conservation and wartime coastal defense. When you take the shuttle to Shell Island or cast a line from the jetties, you are enjoying a park born from the same federal commitment to public lands that drove the CCC across Florida.

To learn more about how we are celebrating the diverse stories behind America’s national heritage, visit America250 at Adventures Unbound.