Destin's founding father: the untold story of Leonard Destin
(Reference in-library use only, Book)

Destin historian H. C. "Hank" Klein has spent five years doing the historical research necessary to separate facts from local legend. He has found out that there is a LOT more to the story than a fisherman simply looking for new fishing grounds. Klein's research has turned up the fact that the Destin family was a family of whalers and fisherman. Klein also discovered why they sailed so far from home in the fall of 1835 and what drew them to the Florida Keys. He also learned the name of the vessels (the sloop Empress and sloop Gallant) that ten seafarers, including Leonard, his father, and two brothers took on that fateful voyage to Key West, when Florida was still a territory. Leonard's father, his older brother William and two additional crew members lost their lives on that trip and both of their vessels were wrecked in a hurricane. First Mate Leonard Destin and the crew of four from the sloop Gallant were stranded on a barrier island for over two months. This barrier island, off the east coast of Florida, has seen many shipwrecks and housed thousands of shipwrecked seafarers during the 1700s and 1800s. This included Spanish vessels laden with gold and silver treasure from the New World bound for the King of Spain's treasury. Leonard's life was changed forever as he never returned to New London. He remained along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico for over 16 years before finally settling at a very remote peninsula called Moreno Point. It wasn't until 1851 that Leonard Destin had a new 36' fishing smack built (the Alabama) in Santa Rosa County, Florida. That same year he married Martha McCullom in Walton County and the next year he decided to put down roots, permanently, at Moreno Point on Choctawhatchee Bay. Leonard Destin began to call his fishing village East Pass after the inlet that took him and his fishing smack to the wonderful, untapped fishing