Milton, Florida, United States

🇺🇸 Milton is a city in and the county seat of Santa Rosa County, Florida. It is located within the Pensacola Metropolitan Statistical Area. Milton is located in the geographic centre of Santa Rosa County and it is bordered by Pace to the west, and Navarre to the South. The town was incorporated in 1844 and is home to Naval Air Station Whiting Field.

Etymology Milton was known by various names during its development. Most notable were "Hell-Town" (muggy, inhospitable land covered with briars, mosquitoes, thorns, snakes) "Jernigan's Landing", "Scratch Ankle" (due to the briars that grew along the riverbank), and "Hard Scrabble".

According to Florida historian Allen Morris, "Just which Milton was honored by the final name is a dispute. Some say it is a contraction of an earlier Milltown; others that it was Milton Amos, pioneer and ancestor of the present Amos family; still others that it was John Milton—not the English poet, but the Civil War governor of Florida".

History Milton was settled in the early 1800s as a small village centered on the lumber industry. The settlement originally was known as Scratch Ankle because of the briars and bramble that grew in the area. Another name was Jernigan's Landing after Benjamin Jernigan (died April 1847), who built a water-powered saw mill at what is now Locklin Lake between 1828 and 1830. Other names were Lumberton, Black Water, and Hard Scrabble, but by 1839, it was being referred to as Milltown. Milton was incorporated as a town in 1844, one year before the Territory of Florida joined the United States as the 27th state.

During the Civil War, much of Milton was burned by Confederate forces retreating from the Union capture of Pensacola in May 2–4 of 1862. The Confederates intended to prevent the town's industries from falling into Union hands. After the Southern forces evacuated the Union troops had a small garrison in nearby Bagdad where they had a base for expeditions in the surrounding area. Many Milton residents fled to Alabama.

Naval Air Station Whiting Field was constructed during World War II with the help of many German prisoners of war who were housed in a camp on the site. The station was commissioned on July 16, 1943, by Rear Admiral George D. Murray and the widow of Captain Kenneth Whiting, after whom the station was named.

The first hospital care in Milton began in 1951, when a group of locals formed the Santa Rosa County Hospital Board. The first hospital in Milton, Santa Rosa Hospital, was located on Stewart Street and opened on December 2, 1952. Santa Rosa Hospital had multiple expansions in the 1960s and by 1970, the hospital was far too small for Milton's growing population. Construction for a new hospital began that year and in December 1972, the Santa Rosa Medical Center was opened.

On March 31, 1962, an F3 tornado hit the north-west side of Milton, causing 17 deaths and 100 injuries. It was Florida's deadliest tornado until February 22, 1998 when 25 people were killed in Kissimmee by another F3 tornado. It was also the deadliest tornado in 1962.

Geography Milton has a total area of 4.6 square miles (12 km²), of which 4.4 square miles (11 km²) is land and 0.2 square miles (0.52 km²) (4.59%) is water.

City information Santa Rosa Medical Center (SRMC) is a 129-bed general hospital in Milton. SRMC is the primary provider of hospital-based healthcare services and emergency medicine in Santa Rosa County.

Milton is the home of the West Florida Railroad Museum and the historic Imogene Theater, owned and operated by the Santa Rosa Historical Society.