Crestview is a city in Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. The population was 27,134 at the 2020 census, up from 20,978 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Okaloosa County. With an elevation of above sea level, it is one of the highest points in the state; it receives of rainfall annually, the second-most of any city in the state of Florida, after Fort Walton Beach with 69 inches. Crestview is a principal city of the Fort Walton Beach-Crestview-Destin Metropolitan Statistical Area. Etymology and nicknames Crestview's name was chosen because of its location on the peak of a long woodland range between the Yellow and Shoal rivers which flow almost parallel on the east and west side of the city. The town was once known as "the icebox of Florida", due to its having the coldest winters in the state. Crestview is now known as the "Hub City", because of the convergence of Interstate 10, State Road 85, U.S. Highway 90, the Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad, and the Yellow River and Shoal River in or near the city. History Crestview was largely an outgrowth of the coming of railroad service to the west Panhandle of Florida. The Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad Company, chartered in 1881, opened its line between Pensacola and Chattahoochee in January 1883. Soon two express passenger trains, the Atlantic Express and the Gulf Express, and a local accommodation train that stopped everywhere, were in daily operation. The expresses took about six hours to make the run, the local, thirteen hours. When the railroad company was unable to cover the interest owed bondholders, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad covered the shortfalls until 1885, and then foreclosed, merging the route into their system as the L & N's Pensacola and Atlantic Division. In 1894, sawmill operator W. B. Wright opened the Yellow River Railroad between Crestview and Florala, Alabama via Auburn, Campton, and Laurel Hill. The L & N supplied the line with freight cars, and in 1906, purchased the operation, as the Yellow River Branch. This line, without any major shippers on it to make it profitable, was used for freight car storage for a time in the early 1980s and then was abandoned with 25.3 miles of the route lifted after May 1985, although the right of way still exists, with some portions paved as local streets. The 1920 Census figures for the