Grayton Beach State Park preserves about 2,200 acres of Florida Panhandle coast between Panama City Beach and Destin, including white-sand shores, dunes, salt marshes, and Western Lake, a rare coastal dune lake. The park’s land was leased from the Florida Board of Education in 1964, and it opened in 1968, while later state acquisitions helped limit development around Grayton Beach. The surrounding community began in 1885 with Charles T. Gray and was further laid out in 1890 by William Miller and William Wilson. A 1926 hurricane and transportation improvements in the early 1930s reshaped and opened the area, which is now prized for its relatively pristine shoreline and varied outdoor recreation.