PANAMA CITY Fla. (WMBB)– What better place to learn about Bay County’s history than at the History Class Brewing Company.
Four local historical authors, Robert Hurst, Nancy Hudson, Ken Redd, and Willie Spears shared stories they wrote based on historical figures and monuments at the History Class book signing Sunday.
One of those authors, Robert Hurst, wrote a book called ‘The Spanish Road.’
Hurst is not just an author, but he is also the Vice President of the Historical Society in Bay County.
He started writing his book in 2013 after learning and studying up North Florida history. He said it is important and interesting to know what came to be and our heritage. He hopes his book can help educate.
“I think it was high time that one of our historic famous road. All these other roads like the Oregon Trail out west and several others out west have been written, but we’ve got a trail that’s 200 years older than theirs, and I thought it was just high time something was written on it… then 2013 came along. That was the 500th anniversary of the Spanish discovery of Florida,” said Hurst.
Hurst said knowing about our city and its roots is interesting.
Nancy Hudson wrote a book called ‘George Mortimer West and His Path in History’. Hudson and the other authors recently had their books published and wanted to team together to educate residents on their city and county.
Hudson said she spent months reading through diaries and documents that were once locked up in the Panama City Library.
“George West is so significant, even his cemetery headstone says that he is the founding father of Panama City, but we really haven’t, well we’ve seen a lot of history about him in local books, but this is the first time to explore all of the documents and letters that were in his collection and in his diaries that span from 1873 to 1926,” said Hudson.
This is the third event all four authors attended together to encourage residents to learn more about their city and county history.
