A deer on the shore features prominently on the City of Niceville’s seal and logo – but why?

How’d this motif get chosen for the City of Niceville, anyway?

For that answer, you’d have to go to Niceville City Manager Lannie Corbin. Corbin, city manager of Niceville since 1971, has lived in the city for almost all of his life. 

The story of the seal starts with Lannie’s dad, Noah Corbin. “It’s really close to my heart,” Lannie said about the seal’s story, “My father was a total teetotaler. He didn’t smoke, he didn’t drink. But, when he was 57 he got sick. We took him up to the hospital. Whatever he had overwhelmed him. He was in there on a Monday and gone that Friday.”

Noah was born in Holt, Florida and was one of eight brothers and three sisters. He moved to south Alabama, but came back to the Niceville area for a job as Deputy Director of Eglin Reservation at Jackson Guard. 

As a part of his job, which included managing the various test sites throughout the range, Corbin’s father would spend a lot of time driving. He also loved taking photos and carried a camera with him so he could take snapshots to share with the family. 

That’s when he saw the image we see on the seal today – the deer in the water of the Choctawhatchee Bay. A little secret, according to Corbin, it was actually taken around Villa Tasso, down SR 20 to the East in Walton County. 

It’s been the seal for at least thirty years and is on all of the city’s trucks, buildings and stationary. 

You can even see it inside a ship’s steering wheel hanging above the city hall chambers.