Fishing is the economy
Horseshoe Beach is an incorporated town on the Gulf in Dixie County, home to about 165 people by the latest federal count, a 2025 estimate. WUFT News described it as a fishing and boating community, a town of canals, small restaurants and a shrimp and bait shop, where everybody pitched in to clear the streets after the storms.
Kenny Butch, owner of Florida Cracker Shrimp and Bait Co., put it simply to WUFT News after Hurricane Idalia: fishing has a bigger economic impact on Horseshoe Beach than any other business. When he reopened after the storm, he planned to go out that night, catch shrimp, and open the next day. He said getting the shop running again would give the town a sense of normal.
The state's own maps put the town at a line on the water. The Florida Department of Agriculture's Big Bend shellfish area, which the FWC points harvesters to, runs from Horseshoe Beach in Dixie County south to Citrus County. For scallops, the town falls inside the FWC's Fenholloway through Suwannee Rivers zone, the same early season that draws crowds to Steinhatchee.
Two storms, one town
Hurricane Idalia came ashore in the Big Bend on August 30, 2023 as a Category 3 storm. A little over a year later Hurricane Helene hit, and Mayor Jeff Williams told WUFT it was the worst storm the town had ever had. By his count Idalia cost 75 homes and Helene close to 100, about 175 of the town's 365. Helene also flattened the recently repaired town hall, and the mayor went to work from a temporary unit set on the old building's tile floor.
Williams said the town lost all of its businesses in Helene, from restaurants and vacation rentals to charter fishing and shrimping operations. Much of the rebuilding has been done by residents, their families and friends. The spirit has held. Over Labor Day weekend 2026 the town held a parade and a 1980s themed party at Sam's Plaza, and organizer Tammy Bryan told WCJB that gatherings like it keep the small town feel alive.
