parcel on the Santa Rosa Sound became what is now downtown Fort Walton Beach. The United States Post Office changed the official name on their cancellations from Camp Walton to Fort Walton on 1 March 1932. The 1940 census counted 90 residents in Fort Walton. Fort Walton was incorporated by a state senate bill effective June 16, 1941. The community's name was officially changed from Fort Walton to Fort Walton Beach on June 15, 1953, by agreement with the state legislature in Tallahassee, and incorporated a portion of Santa Rosa Island formerly known as Tower Beach. Tower Beach, named for a tall observation tower at the site which was later destroyed by a hurricane, had been an amusement area operated from 1928 by the Island Amusement Company by future-Fort Walton Beach mayor Thomas E. Brooks, with a board walk, casino, restaurant, dance pavilion, "40 modernly equipped beach cottages", and concession stands which was largely destroyed by fire on Saturday, March 7, 1942. Wartime supply restrictions prevented a reconstruction. This 875-acre parcel of Santa Rosa Island with three miles of Gulf frontage was conveyed to Okaloosa County on July 8, 1950, in an informal ceremony at the county courthouse in Crestview, Florida. The county paid the federal government $4,000 to complete the transaction, the result of the efforts of Congressman Bob Sikes. The portion of Santa Rosa Island transferred is now known as Okaloosa Island. The remaining Tower Beach summer cottages were removed after the 1955 tourist season as the new Okaloosa Island Authority redeveloped the site with a new hotel and casino. The government was changed to a city manager form. A special census conducted in 1956 listed 9,456 residents, which grew to 11,249 by 1960. The last of three county-owned buildings on Okaloosa Island was torn down on May 31, 1995. The buildings had originally housed the Okaloosa Island Authority and more recently the Okaloosa County Council on Aging. The 1.3-acre tract on the north side of Santa Rosa Boulevard was sold. Geography Fort Walton Beach is located at (30.420199, −86.616727). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 9.26%, is water. Climate Fort Walton Beach experiences hot and very humid summers, generally from late May to mid-September. Autumns, from mid-September to early December, are generally warm. Winters are very short and mild, from mid-December