operated as Uncle Guy's Fish Camp between the 1930s and 1950s. The property was subsequently acquired by Dick Cobb, who operated a bar and restaurant out of the building, which became known as "Cobb's Corner." The business closed in the 1970s, although portions of the structure remain. Despite these early settlements, nearly all of present-day Ormond-by-the-Sea remained undeveloped until the 1950s, when the area began to develop in earnest as a retirement community. The "by the sea" appellation was used to distinguish the area from the adjacent city of Ormond Beach, located immediately to the south. Though unincorporated, it was first represented by the North Peninsula Zoning Commission, created in 1955. For many years, one of Ormond-by-the-Sea's most distinguishing landmarks was the Ormond Pier, a steel structure constructed in 1959 near the intersection of Laurie Drive and A1A. A large section of the Ormond Pier was torn away by a storm in November 1984, and the remaining portions subsequently demolished for safety reasons in the early 1990s. Approximately one mile north on A1A, near the intersection of A1A and Spanish Waters Drive, stands a watch tower constructed in 1942 by the Coast Guard Reserve to look out for German U-boats operating off the coast. The tower was restored in 2004 and is one of the last remaining examples of a World War II era observation tower on the Florida coast. At the northern end of Ormond-by-the-Sea is the North Peninsula State Park, comprising approximately of undeveloped coastal dunes and marsh lands, which were acquired in the mid-1980s through the Conservation & Recreation Lands Program, later known as the "Preservation 2000" and "Florida Forever" programs. Among other species, the park provides crucial habitat for the Florida scrub jay, a threatened federal species of which less than 4,000 breeding pairs are thought to survive. Ecology Though most of Ormond-by-the-Sea is little more than a half-mile wide, it supports no fewer than six distinct ecological zones. The beach, or tidal zone, features distinctive reddish-colored sand created by crushed coquina shells. Here may be found sand fleas and ghost crabs, as well as a variety of coastal birds including plovers, stilts, avocets, terns, and gulls. Just above the tide line, several species of sea turtles are known to lay their eggs, including the leatherback, Atlantic loggerhead, and green turtle. Immediately inland is the Temperate Beach Dune, a "pioneer zone" of vegetation growing along the