Niceville was the center of the commercial fishing industry of the Choctawhatchee Bay region, the basis of the community’s prosperity. Mail service was established there in 1868. The schooner Bera Attious was built at the local shipyard in 1888. Niceville, then in Walton County, was known as Boggy until the name changed in 1910, and in 1915 Okaloosa County was formed. Products from local sawmills, shingle mills, and turpentine stills were transported across Choctawhatchee Bay to Pensacola. In 1911, the steamer Belle, loaded with naval stores, sank with the loss of four lives, including local Noah Edward Burlison. Fishing was a lucrative industry, and fish wagons from as far away as Alabama and other parts of north Florida came to buy fish. Launches serving the area included the Swan, Donna, Ruth, Fritz, and the Belle, providing passenger, freight, and mail service with scheduled stops between there and Pensacola. In 1934, an ice factory made it possible to produce large quantities of ice, increasing fish sales. The Niceville Fish Company, operated by Claude Meigs, and the Spence Brothers Fish Company were the leading commercial fishing businesses, maintaining fish warehouses and fleets of boats.