Miramar Beach has nurtured the offbeat since 1964 when Pete Douglass’s Sunday afternoon jazz gatherings became known as the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society. There’s also the New Age Center, built from found objects, and a cluster of architecturally startling cottages.

Miramar is the site of the old Amesport wharf, built in 1868, and for many years the only consistently reliable link with the outside world. During prohibition, the popular Miramar Beach Restaurant, then known as the Ocean Beach Hotel, was a notorious drop point for illegal liquor.