Baldwin County History

· Baldwin County Historical Society

· Baldwin County Genealogical Society

· Pre-Mississippian Native American cultures often referred to as “mound-builders,” flourished in the area. To this day, a variety of burial, ceremonial and residential mounds along with an occasional artifact can be found along Baldwin County's many waterways.

· The Delta interior lays claim to Bottle Creek, a crucial pre-Columbian Indian ceremonial and political center.

o There are a series of earthen mounds, the tallest being about 50 feet high. Scholars have been investigating Bottle Creek since the 1850s, but only in recent years, with extensive excavations by a team from the University of Alabama, has the site received its due as one of the most important in the Southeast

o The current thinking is that leaders of a Mississippian Indian culture lived and ruled atop these mounds in a dynasty that began about 1200 A.D. and lasted some 400 years. By the time the French had settled in the area, Bottle Creek was uninhabited, but was revered the place as sacred. They took Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville to see it in 1702.

· In 1519 Alonzo Alvarez De Pineda sailed into Mobile Bay and named it Espiritu Santo. In 1540 Hernando Desoto is known to have traveled through a portion of Baldwin County. The town of Spanish Fort is known to have been the indefinite site for Spanish occupation. In time, the French and English would occupy Baldwin County

· 1702 The French found Mobile. Bon Secour was founded by a Frenchman from Montreal, and French explorers left such place names as Bayou Volante (Flying Creek, now Fly Creek) in Fairhope and Bycora Swamp from Bayou Coeur (Heartshaped Swamp).

· 1715 Joseph Simon de la Pointe received a grant for land measuring "one league," or three miles, along Fish River near its mouth at Weeks Bay.

· By the 1740s, several homes had been built in an area that came to be known as The Village, or French Village, in what is now Daphne.

· Augustin Rochon, established a plantation in what is now Spanish Fort around 1760.

· 1763 The British take control of West Florida, including present-day Baldwin County, following the French and Indian Wars.

o British Maj. Robert Farmar built a large plantation along the Tensaw, near what is now Stockton.

· 1780 A Spanish army captured Mobile, then proceeded to the Eastern Shore of the bay and built the "Old Spanish Fort" as a defense against counterattacks.

o 1800 Francisco Suarez, a Spaniard, had received thousands of acres in Baldwin County from the kingdom of Spain.

· 1809 Baldwin County was organized as part of the Mississippi Territory until 1817, then the Alabama Territory until 1819 when Alabama became a state.

o Baldwin County takes its name from Abraham Baldwin, a native of Connecticut who had never been to the Alabama. Baldwin moved to Georgia, was elected to the Georgia State Legislature, served as the University of Georgia's first president, signed the United States Constitution, and served in the United States House of Representatives and Senate Many of the county's settlers, who migrated from Georgia, suggested the county be named after Abraham Baldwin.

o McIntosh Bluff (now in Mobile County) on the Tombigbee River was the first County Seat

· 1810 The Town of Blakeley became the County Seat.

o Settled by Josiah Blakeley and others from New England in 1814, the streets and lots were laid out in such fashion with avenues named after Presidents and streets named fruit trees. The Blakeley Sun, published and printed down in the town, was one of Alabama’s earliest newspapers. Blakeley, on the Tensaw River, emerged as a thriving port town. From 1821 to 1828, it had some 4,000 residents, more than Mobile, and served as the seat of Baldwin County. Blakeley had steamboat traffic (via the Delta) with Mobile. Yellow fever and failed land speculations brought Blakeley to ruin by 1828.

o Property owners and developers in the Blakeley area filed a petition in 1996 requesting the dissolution of the inactive town of Blakeley, which was incorporated in 1814 and never dissolved in order to avoind zoning restrictions.

· 1813 The 19th century's largest Indian massacre of white Americans occurred at Fort Mims, on the Delta's northeast edge.

o In July 1813, American militiamen ambushed Creek Indians at Burnt Corn Creek, near today's border between Escambia and Conecuh counties. The Creeks prevailed, but vowed revenge for the attack. The Creek War had begun.

§ In July 1813, Peter McQueen and a large party of "Red Sticks" proceeded to Pensacola with a letter from a British officer at Fort Malden and four hundred dollars to buy munitions. United States soldiers at Fort Mims, having heard of McQueen's mission, responded by sending a disorganized force to intercept McQueen's party. The Americans ambushed the Red Sticks as they bedded down for the evening at the village of Burnt Corn. The Americans scattered the Red Sticks, who fled to the nearby swamps. From the swamp, the Creeks noticed that the Americans were looting and had dropped their guard. The Creeks re-grouped and launched a surprise attack, which scattered the Americans.

o Delta settlers tried to protect themselves by gathering in wooden stockades, including one owned by Samuel Mims, a wealthy local trader, near Boatyard Lake in the upper eastern Delta. Roughly 120 militiamen guarded some 300 others at Fort Mims, including slaves and friendly Indians. But the militia commander, Daniel Beasley, disregarded warnings of an imminent attack. At noon on Aug. 30, as the settlers ate lunch, hundreds of Creeks led by the mixed-blood William "Red Eagle" Weatherford poured into the fort. They killed Beasley right away, then started killing indiscriminately. Weatherford actually tried to stop the slaughter, but to no avail.

o Historians accept that at least 250 men, women and children were killed at Fort Mims, the largest massacre of whites by Indians in the 19th century. Three weeks later, when a burial party arrived, the sky over Fort Mims was still black with vultures, according to the book "Alabama: The History of a Deep South State."

o The cry "Remember Fort Mims!" took hold, and brought avenging militiamen to Alabama, including Tennesseans commanded by Andrew Jackson. Jackson, who was in and out of the Delta during this time, led the militia in defeating the Creeks at the celebrated Battle of Horseshoe Bend on March 27, 1814. That battle, fought near present-day Wetumpka, crushed the Creeks and effectively ended the Creek War, guaranteeing the tribe's expulsion to the west. It also made Jackson a national hero. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson would remember the Delta by signing legislation to establish the federal Mount Vernon Arsenal three miles west of old Fort Stoddert.

· 1815 During the War of 1812, at Fort Bowyer (now called Fort Morgan), the British attacked the fort prior to the Battle of New Orleans. This attack was repulsed with a number of British casualties and the loss of the HMS Hermes. The fort was attacked again after the British defeat at New Orleans, and was lost to the British on February 12, 1815, but after the Treaty of Ghent was signed the British were forced to relinquish it.

· 1864 In the Battle of Fort Morgan in August, Admiral Farragut entered Baldwin / Mobile Bay to seal off Confederate shipping.

o The Tecumseh, a Federal Ironclad, struck a mine and sank during the fighting in a narrow inlet where it still lies with its entombed crew near Fort Morgan.

o In March 1865, federal forces under Gen. Edward Canby marched north from Fish River and Fort Morgan and surrounded the Confederate’s Eastern Shore positions.

· 1865 Spanish Fort went under siege in March and April 1865, with Confederate Fort McDermott receiving approximately 48 hours of constant bombardment. Federal soldiers overran the site on April 8.

o Union troops dug a ring of trenches and gun positions in a line stretching 4 miles, from near the present site of the Larry D. Cawyer Scenic Overlook on Interstate 10 through Spanish Fort to Bay Minette Creek

o While the battlefield at nearby Blakeley is preserved in a state park, the site of the battle of Spanish Fort has been covered by development. A developer has proposed a new subdivision for 48 acres that includes the site of three Union artillery batteries and earthworks that bombarded Fort McDermott, located across Alabama 225 from Spanish Fort Elementary School – PR 5/4/2007

· 1865 During the Civil War the Confederate Fort Blakely (spelled this way during the Civil War years) was built near to the abandoned town, housing an army camp of upwards to 4,000 soldiers.

o On April 9, 1865, some six hours after Robert E. Lee had surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, Union troops defeated Confederates at the Battle of Fort Blakeley. It is estimated that a total of 4,475 soldiers were killed or wounded in this final engagement.

o At least 6,000 of the Union troops were blacks, one of the largest such representations in the war.

o After 1865 Blakeley was deserted for more than 100 years until Historic Blakeley State Park was created in 1981.

o Remnants of two small Confederate batteries - Forts Huger and Tracy - can still be seen in the Apalachee River, on the Delta's lower, eastern side.

· 1868 The County Seat was moved from Blakeley to Daphne.

· 1893 Adherents of the economic theories of Henry George founded a Single Tax Colony called Fairhope; Friends (Quakers) also settled there.

· 1901 By an Act of the State Legislature, the County Seat was authorized for relocation to the City of Bay Minette, however, the City of Daphne resisted relocation. In order to relocate the County Seat, the men of Bay Minette prefabricated a murder. While the law was chasing down the fictitious killer, the group of Bay Minette men retrieved the Baldwin County Courthouse records, and delivered them to the City of Bay Minette - where Baldwin County's County Seat remains to this day. A New Deal mural hanging in the Bay Minette post office depicts the removal of the county seat. Hooker Mennonites (Amish) found their way to Bay Minette.

· Around the turn of the century, immigrants from many regions of the United States and from other countries began populating Baldwin County: Italians settled in Daphne, Scandinavians in Silverhill, Germans in Elberta, Poles in Summerdale, Greeks in Malbis Plantation, and Bohemians in Robertsdale, Summerdale, and Silverhill.

· 1911 Daphne held its first May Day celebration which became a county-wide celebration held the first Saturday in May. Each community in Baldwin County sent queens and courts dressed in colorful antebellum dresses to compete for the queen of May Day. This tradition fell by the wayside and ended in 1970.

· 1916 The first black school, the Eastern Shore Industrial School, was built in Daphne. Its name was changed to Baldwin County Training School. This school served as the elementary and high school for all the black children in the county until segregation ended in 1969

· 1927 The Mobile Bay Causeway opened along the Old Spanish Trail. This resulted in a drastic change in the economy, location of businesses and the mode of life. The Eastern Shore wharves and docks deteriorated.

· The oldest surviving church in the county, Montgomery Hill Baptist Church, was built on Montgomery Hill near Tensaw in 1853-1854. This simple Greek Revival structure is typical of the nineteenth-century rural churches with its frame construction and one-room sanctuary. Yet its resemblance to a Greek temple and use of interior graining and paneling set it far above any of the homes built in the area at that time. In addition, the slave gallery is a historic statement of the social arrangements of a slave-owning society. Gothic Revival stylistic influences are visible in the Latham Methodist Church (Latham, 1906), St. Paul's Episcopal Church (Magnolia Springs, 1901), and Swift Presbyterian Church (Miflin, 1907). By the 1920's, ornamental concrete blocks had become a popular building material. Three churches built of this material are the Lebanon Chapel A.M.E. Church (1923) and Twin Beach A.M.E Zion Church (1925), both in Fairhope, and the St. Raphael's Roman Catholic Church (1924) in Loxley, now being used as the Loxley Public Library. The Lebanon Chapel A.M.E. Church is the finest example of concrete construction in a religious context in Baldwin County. Its central tower, quoins, denticulations and belt course distinguish it as the highest-style building in a predominately African-American neighborhood. For wealthier congregations, brick became the material of choice. The First Baptist Church of Bay Minette (1914) and St. Mark's Lutheran Church of Elberta (1927) both use this material to a positive effect. The Baptist church, no longer in use, features a recessed portico with tall white Tuscan columns, whereas the Lutheran church mimics medieval building traditions with its squat tower, buttresses, and gothic windows. The Stockton Methodist Church (1929) was built from an old school torn down on the site, and this use of older materials may have influenced its design. The church's massive square brick columns and pedimented front gable are reminiscent of the Classical Revival style of an earlier era.

Baldwin County Government

· The Baldwin County Commission unanimously adopted a $204 million 2007-2008 budget -- a record high which was increased 30 percent compared to the prior year.

· The pay-as-you-go program would allow Baldwin to increase property taxes to help cover costs to build roads, bridges and drainage projects. The program requires a voter-approved constitutional amendment, set to be on the ballot in June. The program would allow the county to collect up to an additional 4 mills on property to pay for the projects that would also have to be approved by voters. – PR 9/18/07

· Jacksonville, Fla.-based Genesis Group was hired to compile a comprehensive plan for Baldwin County, estimated to cost $280,000, to be finished by early 2008. The Planning and Zoning Commission and the County Commission will take final action on approving, altering or turning down the plan. www.GenesisGroup.com/BaldwinCounty

Baldwin County Economics

Baldwin Business Organizations

· Baldwin Economic Development Alliance

· Alabama Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce

· Central Baldwin Chamber of Commerce

· Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce

o The ESCC is holding a series of monthly business training workshops beginning in February as part of the chamber's Blueprint for Tomorrow initiative

· North Baldwin Chamber of Commerce

· South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce

· 2006 Visitor Profile

· The Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau is a quasi-governmental agency funded by a portion of the state's lodgings tax

· Envision Coastal Alabama is a regional development organization.

Baldwin Economic Growth

· Baldwin officials reported capital investment of $71 million in 2006, with 20 companies either locating to the county or expanding existing facilities, according to alliance data. Some 970 new jobs were created.

· Baldwin County's low unemployment rate, under 3 percent, is evidence of a labor shortage

o A Gulf Shores company, Tropical Services, found a way to make the employee shortage work in its favor. The company supplies college-age foreign exchange students to employers in about 40 locations in the area. Tropical Services plans to expand from about 300 students this year to more than 1,000 next year.

· Baldwin's micropolitan economic strength ranking was 34th in 2007, 8th in 2006, 37th in 2005 and 11th in 2004, according to POLICOM Corp. Baldwin is in the top 5 percent among 693 counties nationally. The county's ranking was the highest of any in states along the Gulf Coast as well as Tennessee, Georgia and Arkansas. Much of the data used in the study for the 2007 report was from 2004 or earlier.

· Baldwin County's economy grew at 6.1% in the 12 months ended June 30, 2007, according to an index of the county's gross product maintained by Don Epley at the University of South Alabama Center for Real Estate Studies. Since 2003, the county's economy has grown 22.9%. – Jeff Amy, PR, 10/28/07

Baldwin County Industries and Businesses

· Throughout most of the twentieth century, Baldwin County’s economy was made up heavily of farming, forestry, and seafood.

· In the 1970s, some South Baldwin farmers turned to sod farming, including Woerner and Craft Farms.

· In the 1980s and 1990s, tourism and real estate became a large part of the economy.

· L-3 Crestview Aerospace Corp.'s announced the closure of its Fairhope plant in December 2007.

· Standard Furniture of Bay Minette in year 2003 did over $250 million in gross business, with 1250 employees, making wood bedroom furniture. W. M. Hodgson, Sr., with four or five friends, started the company in the 1940s and later he purchased the interests of the others. In the 1950s, W. M. Jr., and Bob Hodgson took over the operations.

Baldwin County Infrastructure

· BRATS is the Baldwin Rural Area Transportation System

· A recent Baldwin task force study gave evidence of a transportation crisis. Although more middle-income workers will be needed in the county, they will have a harder time finding homes they can afford because of spiraling land prices. Baldwin is going to have to look beyond its borders to fill its job openings - an estimated 4,000 at any given time

· BRATS and its Escambia counterpart, ECATS, attempt to fill the transportation void in a cooperative fashion.

o BRATS has talked with Mobile's WAVE Transit officials about hooking a Baldwin route into the central transportation center at the GM&O Building in downtown Mobile.

o Baldwin's low unemployment rate, under 3 percent, may be driving transportation discussions, but Mobile stands to benefit from Baldwin County’s tourists.

o The goal is to link Mobile and Baldwin counties by ferry by the end of 2007, with the ferry purchased using money from a federal grant connected to the planned maritime museum on Mobile's downtown riverfront.

· The Foley Beach Express and toll bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway were built by the Baldwin County Bridge Co.

o The three sons of former Gov. Fob James, namely Patrick, Tim and Fob III, along with brothers Tim and John McInnis of Montgomery, were partners in the Baldwin County Bridge Company, LLC.

§ The partners financed the $44 million project with $36 million in private bonds underwritten by the John Hancock Company of Boston. The remainder came from federal highway funds and the city of Foley. The bonds included $31m of 10.25% 28-year toll revenue bonds plus $5m secondary debt at a rate varying according to the project’s profitability – an “equity kicker” that could pay as much as 21% but bears most of the risk. Some of the land was donated by landowners keen on the road’s development potential but other stretches had to be bought. Development of the project took three years and construction was completed in 55 weeks. – TollRoad News, 8/3/2000.

§ They refinanced the project for $64 million with HRH Nordbank, with the assistance of Macquarie, in 2004.

§ Then-Gov. Fob James signed into law a bill allowing counties to license such bridges in May 1996, shortly before their proposal was publicly announced.

o In 2003, the Orange Beach City Council approved a deal with the bridge company in which the city agreed to give the firm $1.2 million annually for 10 years in exchange for a fee for each car that crosses the bridge. Orange Beach collects royalties for 30 years -- at a rate that increases as traffic rates eclipse million-car increments during the first 10 years and at a fixed rate of 30 cents for each car that uses the bridge for the remaining 20 years. After 30 years, the city could choose to buy the span for 10 times its annual revenue or continue to collect 30 cents per car for another 30 years.

o In 2005, The U.S. subsidiary of Australian financial giant Macquarie bought the Baldwin County Bridge Co. for $95 million. Both Tim James and John McInnis Jr. were to remain with the company as consultants or directors for up to five years.

§ Macquarie, which recently bought long-term rights to operate the Chicago Skyway toll road for $1.83 billion, also owns stakes in major pay-to-use roads in San Diego and England and large shares in airports in Sydney, Australia; Brussels, Belgium; Rome; and Copenhagen, Denmark.

· In preparation for an anticipated public unveiling of its specific plans to connect the Foley Beach Express to the Gulf-front via an elevated highway, the City Council on Tuesday approved an $80,000 contract with Figg Bridge Engineers to start designing the structure. What has prevented the city from building the road, called the Southern Evacuation Parkway, has been the fact that about a third of the 1½-mile road will need to pass through Gulf State Park. – PR 9/20/07

· There is a $50 million-plus plan to construct a four-lane highway from the Foley Beach Express to I-10 via what is now Baldwin County 83 in Robertsdale and east of Loxley.

o Construction will probably take 12 to 18 months for each section of the two-phase project. The first section will be from the Foley Beach Express to U.S. 90, with the second continuing to I-10.

· Orange Beach is moving ahead with plans for a Wolf Bay Bridge which would launch from the end of Alabama 161 and land at Sapling Point, connecting to Baldwin County 95.

o The city is creating a bridge authority, choosing an engineering firm and soliciting private investment from firms that include Macquarie. Mayor Pete Blalock said city leaders still envision a toll bridge but aren't sure how it will be developed and who will own it. – PR 4/1/07, 8/29/07

o Orange Beach officials signed a $5.7 million contract with Tallahassee, Fla.- based Figg Bridge Developers Inc. Figg has planned several bridges along the Gulf Coast, including the Dauphin Island Bridge. Figg was chosen because it had drawn partial plans for the bridge at the request of dairy magnate George Barber Jr., who along with the David Lawrenz family owns thousands of undeveloped acres where the bridge would land.

o In March 2007, Figg Engineering Group completed a study that found a bridge across Wolf Bay and highway could cost as much as $110 million, depending on how far north the road extends. The study concluded that the project could, over 20 years, generate income up to four times that cost. – PR 4/1/07

o The Orange Beach City Council approved a one-year deal with Goldman Sachs to share the costs of the engineering. – PR 4/1/07

o Orange Beach leaders have long sought state and federal funding for the project. At one point in the 1990s, the state seemed prepared to fund the span, but when the Foley Beach Express toll bridge was built in western Orange Beach by a group of investors that included the sons of former Gov. Fob James, Alabama backed off the project. – PR 9/27/07

o A bridge over Wolf Bay is projected to boost Orange Beach’s population from 5,300 to 52,000 by 2015. That figure assumes the city would bring in about 5,000 acres north of the bay and see them developed fully.

o Wolf Bay Bridge Feasibility Study. Orange Beach Transportation Plan.

· The state plans to widen a 15.8-mile stretch of Alabama 181, beginning at U.S. 90 near Malbis and ending at U.S. 98 near Barnwell to the south.

· Baldwin County 13 is being built as a third north-to-south corridor.

o The state is planning a $19 million interchange at Baldwin County Road 13, which is currently scheduled for construction in 2010.

o A $9 million service road north of I-10 between U.S. 98 and Alabama 181 has been proposed.

o TimberCreek will donate land and $2 million. Baldwin County will contribute $4 million in cash and services. Cypress Equities, developers of Spanish Fort Town Center, dedicated $2 million after discussion of whether or not the road would connect to the Center. TimberCreek developer Allen Cox said he hopes the city of Daphne will make a $1 million contribution. If the state does not build the new interchange, the service road won't be constructed either and Baldwin County and the project's other partners will owe nothing.

o Infirmary Health System plans to purchase 100 acres of property from TimberCreek to construct a medical facility on the site, but only if it has access to I-10.

· Gov. Bob Riley’s administration is considering a proposal to build an elevated road through Gulf State Park to provide a new link between the beach and routes off the coast. The road could connect with Canal Road in Orange Beach at the Foley Beach Express toll bridge. Riley said the main idea of the road was to provide a hurricane evacuation route, however, not to link the beach with the developments. – PR 2/3/07

· The Jack Edwards Airport, which has two runways and is on 830 acres east of Alabama 59, now provides service for private air travel only. Nearly $38 million in construction projects to be completed in three stages during the next 20 years have been proposed in a report commissioned by Gulf Shores to determine the area's aviation needs by 2025, according to consultants with Barge Waggoner Sumner and Cannon Inc. The first stage of the plan includes a 32,000-square-foot commuter terminal with waiting areas and ticketing and baggage services accommodating commercial flights to and from the airport.

· Mobile Bay Ferry

Baldwin County Utilities

· GulfTel Communications, previously Gulf Telephone, is the telephone company that has served south Baldwin County since 1929.

o Gulf Telephone was founded by Ward Snook in 1929. His son, John Snook, was president of the company until his death in 1994.

o Madison River Communications bought Gulf Telephone in 1999, when the Foley company was purchased for $312 million, and renamed it GulfTel.

o In 2007 CenturyTel of Monroe, La., purchased Madison River. GulfTel now has 87 employees, compared to 345 in 1999.

· Alabama Power only serves the Bay Minette and Perdido areas. Alabama Power sells wholesale to Robertsdale Municipal Power Authority, which furnishes power to Fairhope and Riviera Utilities, and Alabama Electric Co-operative, which in turn, serves power to Baldwin County Electric Membership Corporation.

· Baldwin EMC

· Riviera Utilities



Media

Baldwin County Education

· Baldwin County Board of Education

· Orange Beach and Gulf Shores held a referendum in March 2007 to form an independent school system funded through a 7.5-mil property tax increase which failed by more than a two-to-one margin in both cities.

· For the third year in a row, the number of Baldwin schools that failed to meet state standards declined, falling from 17 in 2005 to two in 2006 to just one in 2007. The only Baldwin County school that did not meet state standards was Baldwin County High School in Bay Minette. The two schools that didn't make it last year -- Foley Middle and Bay Minette Middle -- rebounded and passed, but remain on the school improvement list.

o In 2007, state auditors discovered that Baldwin County High School's athletic department ran up a deficit of $345,000. The scandal led to the retirement of former Principal Eddie Mitchell and resignation of former Athletic Director Robert Leslie.

Attractions

· Blakeley Historic Park: This 3,800-acre park was the site of a Civil War battle. Regular festivities include an April Civil War festival and an October Cajun/Bluegrass celebration.

Baldwin County Municipalities and Communities

Stockton

· Stockton was divided by this Ellicott’s Line, with some residents living in the United States and some in Spanish Florida. Although Stockton became a "border town," U.S. law generally prevailed in the area.

· The Baldwin County Bicentennial Museum is planned to be built in Stockton by 2009.

Perdido

· Jim and Marianne Eddins, came to Perdido in 1971 after Jim retired and opened Alabama's first native farm winery, Perdido Vineyards and Casa Perdido. After some initial success, Eddins' company went bankrupt in the late 1980s, and the winery was auctioned off. But he and his wife battled back, buying the vineyard and, eventually, the winery. Saying that muscadine grapes and other local produce are higher in antioxidants than many comparable fruits and vegetables, Eddins plans to launch a large-scale vinegar production operation. At present, the only place to buy them is at the winery. Some of the wines are offered at a gas station at the Perdido/Rabun exit.

Bay Minette

· 1861 Bay Minette was founded. It was named for the French colonial surveyor Minette

· 1901 The county seat was relocated from Daphne to Bay Minette.

o Bay Minette was still little more than a sleepy north Baldwin frontier town in the 1890s, when James D. Hand came along. He traded away a fortune in timber rights to acquire deeds to land around the rail line. By the turn of the century, Hand had amassed more than 9,000 acres in the Bay Minette area.

o In 1901, he swayed the Legislature to move the seat of government from Daphne to Bay Minette. Hand made himself chairman of a courthouse construction committee, donated the property where the courthouse still sits today and contributed $1,600 toward its construction cost.

o When residents of Daphne filed a lawsuit to block the move, they failed to get a restraining order. So on the night of Oct. 11, 1901, Hand and 21 other men from Bay Minette sneaked into Daphne and hauled off the courthouse records, furniture, the bars from the jail, furnishings in the circuit courtroom, nearly everything "from the judge's desk to the spittoons," according to a newspaper account. The Legislature and the Alabama Supreme Court later ratified the transfer.

o In 1902, Hand was one of the chief investors when the L&N Railroad sold $1.5 million in bonds to build a spur from Bay Minette to Navy Cove, a distance of about 60 miles. Hand envisioned Bay Minette turning into a major railroad hub between Mobile, Montgomery and Pilot Town, where ocean-going ships could be loaded directly. Construction began in 1904, and by the end of 1905 the line already reached Foley, though it never made it down the Fort Morgan peninsula.

o In 1906 the dredging of the Mobile Ship Channel and the Hurricane of 1906 destroyed Pilot Town, and the need for the railroad. The rail line continued to operate between Foley and Bay Minette until 1951.

The Eastern Shore

· In the days before the bay causeway, which opened in 1929, wealthy Mobile residents crossed the 10- to 12-mile-wide expanse in boats to summer at seaside cottages.

· The Eastern Shore Trail for hikers and bikers will run from the battleship to Weeks Bay Estuary--33 miles altogether.

· Punta Clara Kitchen, in Point Clear, for homemade pralines, fig preserves, and other tantalizers to cart home. Lunch at Fly Creek Cafe; Sunday afternoon jazz and a sunset Pelican Punch (white rum, triple sec, cranberry and other juices) at Pelican Pointe Grill; and dinner at the Fairhope Inn & Restaurant, which has a lovely setting.

· The Eastern Shore housing boom started decades ago in Daphne, Fairhope and Spanish Fort, and is now pushing up Alabama 225 toward Stockton.

Spanish Fort

· There are actually 3 Forts in Spanish Fort, but our location got its name from the first one that was built in 1781 by the Spanish. It is located near the end of River Rd. on the bluff overlooking the Blakely River. There was an old abandoned house located there in the 1960s. The other forts are Ft. McDermott and Red Fort, both of which were built by the Confederates. However George Fuller Sr. constructed a stucco Fort, which was located next to the Tourist Village. When the tourist would ask where the fort was, he would point to that. The photo on the left shows the Stucco Tower which was added to the Tourist Village Circa 1939 – House of Dixie

· In 1929, George Fuller had accumulated 2,500 acres. He began developing it in the 1950s, and most of that land has been developed as Spanish Fort Estates. His family continues to develop the area as Fuller Brothers Real Estate.

o Developer David Fuller expects Spanish Fort Estates to reach the banks of Bay Minette Creek, where his family's property ends at Military Bridge, right next to Les and Christine Buzbee's fish camp

· In 1949 the Buzbee Fish Camp was at the end of what is now Highway 225. The road was just a dirt lane then, and its terminus was the base of their boat launch. Beyond that, it was pure Delta wilderness.

· Spanish Fort was incorporated in 1993.

· The $12.8 million Spanish Fort High School was built off U.S. 31 just north of Alabama 181 in 2005.

· In 2007, Spanish Fort annexed 11,000 acres of the Highlands of Spanish Fort development by International Paper Realty. The project could take 50 years to complete.

· The southern border of Spanish Fort abuts I-10 in two areas: a two-mile stretch east of U.S. 98 and at the Eastern Shore Centre east of Alabama 181. Along the interstate, the city's border jigsaws in spots where Daphne holds significant acreage, including TimberCreek.

· Spanish Fort High School

Daphne

· City of Daphne

History

· 1702 The French established a colony in Mobile which included the Village (Eones) in Daphne. By 1743, there was a brickyard, pottery and sawmill located on and near Yancy Creek which is now adjacent to Village Point Park Preserve. The Village was the principal crossing point of Mobile Bay, connecting it to the land route to Pensacola, Montgomery, Fort Toulouse and trade with the natives.

· 1743 British take Mobile from the French. British Commander Thomas Durnford established a plantation in south Daphne (part of present day Durnford Hills Court off Captain O’Neal Drive).

· 1779 The Spanish take Mobile and establish a fortification at Daphne.

· 1781 A revolutionary battle was fought at the Village when the British from Pensacola tried to retake Mobile.

· 1787 Louis D’Olive receives an 800 arpen Spanish land grant (approximately 800 acres), part of which is Village Point Preserve. 1803 Louis D’Olive establishes a permanent residence at Daphne, now Village Point Park Preserve. His interests were cattle, goats, hogs, and woodland products. He also established a hotel, La Belle Rose. During this same period, he established the cemetery located in the Village Point Park Preserve. The cemetery may be visited on one of the walking trails.

o 1819 Major Lewis Stark, who also served under Andrew Jackson, contracted to furnish brick to build Fort Morgan. Some of the bricks were made in Daphne. He married Louisa D’Olive, and both are buried in the D’Olive Cemetery in Village Point Park Preserve.

· 1814 During the War of 1812, Gen. Andrew Jackson rallied his troops, who had just fought the Creeks and British at Pensacola, beneath a large oak on the D’Olive Plantation before marching on New Orleans. Today, the magnificent “Jackson’s Oak” is the centerpiece of historic Village Point Park Preserve. The route that Jackson subsequently followed across Baldwin County to Pensacola has long been known as the Jackson Trail.

· 1820 The Village suffered a severe yellow fever epidemic and, for the most part, was abandoned. Some of the remaining names locally are Yancey, Crane, Phillips, Harrub, Rice and Stapleton.

· 1833 A Connecticut sea captain, William Howard, purchased 123 acres of land between what is now Dryer Avenue and Belrose Avenue

o Howard built the Howard Hotel. In 1894 it was sold to William Dryer and became the Daphne Springs Hotel, and is now Bayside Academy

o Captain Howard built a flume for the spring and sold water to ships, and ran a water delivery service to the ships too large to enter the bay. Later, when the bay boats were calling at the various wharves (Halls, D’Olive, Stark, Howard, Short and Hollywood), they also delivered mail.

o The first post office was established on Howard property, and Capt. Howard became Daphne’s first postmaster. Mrs. Howard was credited in naming the post office Daphne because of the many laurel trees that grew along the shore. According to Greek mythology, Daphne was a nymph who was loved by Apollo, but did not return his love. She fled, pursued by Apollo, and when she could run no more, was turned into a laurel tree, hence the name Daphne.

o 1858 A church was constructed on land donated by Captain William Howard served all Protestant denominations until 1870, when it became Methodist. Worship services were held in the church until 1976, when a new sanctuary on Main Street was dedicated. It became the Old Daphne Church Museum in 2001.

· 1845 Gavin Yuille purchased 72 acres, established a cabin and farm and called the place Magnolia Hill. The land lies along Belrose and Magnolia Avenues. His great-granddaughter, Miss Jean Yuille still lives on the estate. The family was prominent in the bakery business in Mobile for three generations. They moved to Daphne permanently in 1925. Later, the Yuille family constructed a long pier at the end of Belrose Avenue and engaged in passenger and freight docking.

· 1847 The steamship Cora made runs twice daily across Mobile Bay, beginning the romantic period of bay boats that lasted until 1927, when the causeway was constructed.

· 1847 William Patterson died. He was a very colorful person who had purchased 4 acres from Louis D’Olive. He was buried on the property and his grave lies along the street about 27340 North Main Street.

· 1851 Hollywood Hotel was established near 1109 Captain O’Neal Drive and was known for its long pier which went to the top of the high bluff. Here, you could catch the stage to Pensacola along the Old Spanish Trail.

· 1865 During the Civil War, the Union fleet landed and camped at the Village during the campaign to capture Spanish Fort and Fort Blakeley. Rebel forces set up a cannon at Raggedy Point, firing upon a union ship killing one and wounding three. In retaliation, the ship fired upon some bay front homes and the Howard Hotel. In March 1865, Union troops in route to the battle of Spanish Fort spent the night in the Methodist Church on Dryer Avenue.

· 1868 The county seat is moved from Blakeley to Daphne

· 1874 Daphne Post Office is opened. Mayor Lewis Stark donated two acres of land to former slaves for the Little Bethel church on Main Street

· 1888 The first Italians of the Italian Colony arrive: Dominico Trione and the Castagnolli brothers, Dominico and Cesare. Founder Allasandro Valerio bought a tract of land and advertised in newspapers in large cities, where many Italians lived in ghettos. None of the families came direct from Italy but many came from the central United States. There was a lapse of 20 years between the first and last families to arrive.

o 1898 The Italian Catholic Church of the Assumption was built; prior to that time, mass was held in private homes. Fr. Angelo Chiariglione was known as “the priest of the flying mission” as his territory was Alabama and Northwest Florida. Although the Italian government was not connected with the colony, then queen, Margherita of Savoy sent gifts of vestments, missals and candle holders which may be seen on display in the back of the Christ the King Church. The names of the founding families are etched in granite tiles in front of the church.

· 1901 The county courthouse is forcibly removed to Bay Minette. Between 1907 and 1940 the Courthouse became a Normal School, for training teachers.

· 1927 Daphne is incorporated. The Mobile Bay Causeway is built. A dirt road is cut from Spanish Fort to Fairhope which was paved about 1936 and is now Scenic Highway 98.

· 1930-1940s Downtown Daphne consisted of Trione’s Store, a post office, a barber shop, Frank Hill’s Dry Goods Store, Peterson’s Store (formally Bertagnolli’s), Dryer’s Drug and Sundries Store and Rayford and Baggett’s General Store. A principal business was the Daphne Pottery, run by Clarence Dryer, with the potter being Ed Grace. Several men were employed digging the clay and preparing it for pottery as well as loading the kilns. The main output was charcoal furnaces. The original building still stands. Dan Pruitte Eddins operated a garage and a paper wood business located north of the current Bulletin Office. One of the final uses of Yuille’s wharf was the loading of wood on the barges for shipping to International Paper Company. With WWII and the increase in Mobile’s population, Daphne’s population increased as well.

· 1950s-1960s, The water system, city hall, and other infrastructure is built

· 1988 Lake Forest in annexed into Daphne, making Daphne the largest city in Baldwin County. There were about 3200 residents in Daphne and 5000 in Lake Forest.

· During the 1990s, areas north of I-10, including TimberCreek subdivision, were annexed.

· Source: Alfred Guarisco, Jubilee Breeze, June-Dec 2006.

· The City of Daphne was ranked 96th in the "Top 100 Best Places to Live" by CNN/Money website.

· Daphne has an economic development program guided by a Strategic Plan for Economic Development. The Industrial Development Board of the City of Daphne is implementing parts of the plan, which include the development of the Daphne Commerce and Technology Center in the Malbis area. The Center is a public-private partnership between the Board and Spanish Trail Investments LLC and contains 225 acres located adjacent to I-10. Other business parks in Daphne include the Daphne Commerce Park and Daphne Business Park.

Attractions

· Old Daphne Church Museum opened in 1998

· The second-largest known collection of Jim Beam decanters on display is in Daphne, at Manci's Antique Club, Inc

· Judge Roy Bean’s burnt down February 15, 2005. It was uninsured. Owner John Sack said the bar's two mascots - a goat named ``Billy'' and a Macaw named ``Tattoo'' - survived the blaze, but everything else was destroyed. Sack and Jack West founded the bar and restaurant in 1977. Judge's gained fame in the late 1970s and '80s because of its big-name musical guests including Emmylou Harris, the Marshall Tucker Band, Alabama and Jimmy Buffett, who played Judge's about 25 times. West said the original building at Judge's was erected in 1946 and was known as the Embassy Lounge. He bought the property in 1976. In 2002, West sold the business and leased the property out to Sack and Steve Anderson. Sack said he bought out Anderson in July. Buffett's sister, Lucy Buffett, who owns Lulu's restaurant in Gulf Shores, said that when her children were young, they only knew two phone numbers by heart: their grandmother's and the number for Judge's. – Dan Murtaugh, PR 2/16/2005

· The Jubilee Festival takes place on the streets of downtown Daphne.

· Bayside Academy was built in 1979 on the grounds of the old Howard Hotel. Daphne High School opened in 1989.

· Village Point Preserve opened in 2002

· Bayfront Park opened in 1996

· Olde Towne Daphne

Montrose

· Ecor Rouge, the highest coastline point between Maine and Mexico, is in Montrose

· Poser Business Forms Inc. in Montrose was started in 1949 in a small plant in Fairhope by Walter Poser. It was acquired in 1998 by Mail-Well and now operates as PrintXcel, headquartered in Englewood, Colorado. In 2001 it grossed over $100 million to $119 million and employed about 1100 people. They manufacture Lithographed business forms.

Fairhope

Fairhope History

· 1893 The Fairhope Single Tax Corporation was founded by 28 Iowans seeking to put into practice the economic theories of Henry George.

o The corporation established their colony by pooling together funds and purchasing land known as Stapleton's pasture on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. Then dividing the land into leaseholds they were able to pay all government taxes and rents making a single tax. This single tax system would maintain the value of the land for the colony by providing incentives for using the land productively. Incorporated under Alabama law in 1904, this oldest and largest of US single-tax experiments. 

o The Fairhope Single Tax Corporation still operates 1800 leaseholds covering more than 4000 acres in and around Fairhope in return for the payment of a rent (the "single tax") based on the land's valuation; the combined rents are used to pay taxes and to provide and improve community services.

· 1907 Marietta Pierce Johnson founded the School of Organic Education in Fairhope. Mrs. Johnson, a teacher from St.Paul, Minn., read the works of Nathan Oppenheim and C.Hanford Henderson, and became inspired to start her own experimental school. She moved to Fairhope at age 38.

· 1908 The City of Fairhope was established with around 500 residents and took over responsibility for all municipal services.

· Early visitors came by Bayboat from Mobile to vacation in the small bay cottages and hotels along the bluff top.

· In the 1930s, the city became the caretaker of Fairhope's beachfront park, Henry George Park, Knoll Park, and the quarter-mile long pier, all gifts of the Single Tax Colony

· The 1980s beautification program was led by James P. Nix - mayor from 1972 to 2000

· H.L. "Sonny" Callahan Municipal Airport

Fairhope Government

· City of Fairhope website

· Fairhope doesn't have a sales tax. Rather, the town owns Fairhope Utilities -- water, electric and gas – and sells the services to residents, and then reinvests the revenue in the community. Mayor Tim Kant says utility revenue represents more than 40% of Fairhope's $30 million budget.

· Fairhope Mayor Tim Kant makes $16,000 as mayor and over $70,000 as head of utilities. The Fairhope City Council has appointed a committee to investigate whether both positions should be held by one person.

Fairhope Art and Attractions

· Fairhope and De La Mare Avenues, the town's main shopping streets, are lined with small antique stores, art galleries, independent book sellers and upscale clothing boutiques. Ordinances prohibit big-box outlets such as Home Depot and Wal-Mart from opening within town limits, and developers face rules and restrictions.

· The Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope is home to four galleries with exhibits that change monthly. ESAC features a gallery with member artists’ work for sale. The galleries feature paintings, sculpture, photography and multimedia artwork. The Academy at the Art Center is well known for its variety of classes and workshops year-round. The Eastern Shore Art Center and galleries in Fairhope also host the Fairhope ArtWalk, a monthly tour of the galleries in the city.

· The Arts & Crafts Festival, started in Fairhope in 1952 and sponsored by the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce, began as a tour of exhibits by local artists inside store windows. Over the years, the festival changed, and exhibitors now come from across the United States. The number of visitors is in six-digit figures, and concurrent activities have expanded to make this event one of the highlights of the year in the Southeast. The Eastern Show Art Association’s juried Outdoor Art Show is held at the same time, adding another 150 artists to the weekend. Held on Saturday during the festival, the 10K Spring Fever Chase attracts hundreds of enthusiastic runners.

· The Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts (FCWA) has a mission to carry on the literary legacy of the Eastern Shore. The group’s Writers-in-Residence come to Fairhope for a three-day seminar called Southern Writers Reading Program each November. The 501c3 organization also established awards for local authors and commissioned the book chronicling Fairhope's literary history and tradition

o The Eastern Shore takes pride in its renowned authors, including Winston Groom, Fannie Flagg, W.E.B. Griffin, and Sonny Brewer.

o The first conspicuous act of the group was to lease and renovate a tiny city-owned cottage at 9 N. School St. built in the 1920s, and in danger of demolition. The FCWA board then voted to call it the Betty Joe Wolff Writer's Cottage, in honor of the founder of Page & Palette. The Wolff Cottage was first put to use as a writer's residence for Rick Bragg, who was the center's first author-in-residence. The property on which the cottage rests has become the site for the new Fairhope Library. –PR 12/28/06

· The Fairhope Museum is located at 50 South School Street on the Faulkner State Community College campus in the Bell Building. Fairhope’s old 1927 City Hall will be home to the Fairhope Historical Museum

· Fairhope Residential Development

Point Clear

· Named Punta Clara by the Spanish

· The Grand Hotel was originally built by F.H. Chamberlain 1847, a two-story building with 40 rooms. A separate building housed the dining room and kitchen while still another building held the bar named "The Texas". Guests traveled to the hotel by steamboats and docked at what is now the marina.

o During the Civil War, the 21st Alabama Regiment camped on the hotel grounds and the hotel was used as a base hospital. In 1869 a fire broke out destroying the hotel.

o In the 1870's Captain H.C. Baldwin purchased the hotel and, using some of the old foundations, built the second Grand Hotel at a cost of $75,000. It was much like the first, except it was 300 feet in length and contained 60 suites.

o In 1901 Major James K. Glennon of Mobile purchased the hotel and The Gunnison House which lay next to it along with 250 acres of land. At one point, L&N Railroad wanted to develop the area as the "Riviera of America" and offered Major Glennon $90,000 but the major felt it was worth $100,000. The hotel was severely damaged by the hurricanes of 1906 and 1916. Major Glennon was ready to quit but Mrs. Glennon intervened and the hotel reopened for business.

o In 1939 Mr. E.A. Roberts purchased the hotel. His dream was to have an elaborate resort. Mr. Roberts bought 25 additional parcels of land and along with his architect brother, Mr. J.P. Roberts, the third Grand Hotel began to evolve. In 1940 the old buildings were demolished and using some old timbers and hard pine flooring, the main building was built. Soon after completion, World War II broke out and the hotel was used as a training base.

o After World War II was over the hotel was conveyed to Waterman Steamship Company, Mr. Roberts' Company. A marina, two tennis courts, an 18-hole golf course, and a 750,000-gallon swimming pool were built. In 1955 Waterman Steamship sold out to Southern Industries.

o In 1966 James K. McLean purchased the hotel. During Mr. McLean's ownership he added the hotel's current Bay House. At that point the hotel had grown to 172 guestrooms. In 1967 a second 9-hole golf course and the first conference center were added.

o In 1981 the Marriott Corporation bought the Grand Hotel. Shortly after the purchase, the Marriott added two buildings, the North Bay House and the Marina Building, bringing the total guestrooms to 306. In 1986 the old Gunnison House was taken down to make way for the Grand Ballroom to accommodate the many group conventions that are held there today. Marriott added an additional 9-hole golf course to make the total 36 holes.

· Punta Clara Kitchen, 17111 Scenic Highway 98, 1 mile south of the historic Grand Hotel; started in 1952 in a circa 1897 Victorian home

· Mullet Point is at the end of Highway 1. Pelican Point Grill is there.

· Point Clear Polo: Ed Bernard and Wilson Greene brought Polo to the Mobile / Eastern Shore area in the early 1970s. Kenny McLean and George Radcliff were key supporters of the growing club.

Malbis

· 1906 Malbis Plantation was established. Jason Malbis and William Papageorge had undertaken a search throughout the US for a place to establish a Greek community. They bought 120 acres for $5.00 per acre which they prepared for settlement. Three years later they purchased an additional 500 acres. More Greek immigrants joined their effort, and they farmed, raised livestock, and started a canning factory, an electric power plant, turpentine still, an ice plant and a bakery in Mobile. In Daphne a plant nursery and motel was established.

o The Malbis Plantation had its own bakery, dairy and community with dorms for men and women. The bakery was located in downtown Mobile, and thrived as did the many other Malbis Plantation businesses including restaurants and a motel. In fact the largest skyscraper in Mobile was planned by Malbis, only to be stopped by the Depression. Still the community continued under generations of leadership after Jason Malbis died, selling land to Diamondhead Corporation to create Lake Forest, Alabama’s largest subdivision. Nafseka Mallars was president when land was sold for the exclusive TimberCreek golf development. She also instructed the Malbis Memorial Foundation to give for a small fee a park of giant oak trees to the City of Daphne, today known as Centennial Park. Ms. Antigone Papageorge, Ms. Bessie Papas and George Malbis were next as presidents, developing Historic Malbis residential and commercial areas and the Eastern Shore Centre. Today land continues to be their major asset, and selling land is something that happens only rarely, as time and the real estate market dictates. The generations have dwindled over time, but the vision remains with the latest president William Scourtes. – Coastal Alabama

o Malbis Plantation began selling some of its several thousand acres in 1997, first with the 150-acre Historic Malbis subdivision at 181 and U.S. 90. The Malbis family have retained most of their land on the south side of U.S. 90, and have a commercial lot across from Lowe's on Alabama 181. Scourtes said they also plan to build a mixed-use retail center in the Historic Malbis subdivision in the future. The land prices on Alabama 181 in that area range from $16 to $18 per square foot, while land on U.S. 90 is now priced at $10 per square foot, when it was once in the $2 per square foot range, according to developers.

· Malbis Memorial Church: This Neo-Byzantine church was built in 1965 by the Greek community and features high vaulted ceilings and faux marble columns. The walls display paintings of Jesus Christ and other key religious figures. The dome portrays the twelve disciples and the major prophets of the Old Testament.

Loxley

· In Loxley Ace Hardware has built a major distribution center employing 300.

· Loxley Strawberry Festival

· Burris’ Farm Market

Robertsdale

· The Southern Plantation Corporation of Chicago, Illinois founded Robertsdale in 1905. They chose the city's present location largely because of the fertile farmland and the fact that the Louisville and Nashville Railroad line had just recently made extensions to Foley, Alabama. Robertsdale is called the Hub of Baldwin County.

· The town was named after one of the officials of the Corporation, Dr. B.F. Roberts, and was incorporated in 1921.

· Robertsdale is home to Robertsdale Elementary School, Central Baldwin Middle School and Robertsdale High School.

· City of Robertsdale

Silverhill

· Silverhill was founded in 1896 by settlers from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Czechoslovakia



Summerdale

· Town of Summerdale

Magnolia Springs

· Magnolia Springs stands on land granted by the Spanish to Joseph Collins in 1800. In 1834 the administrators of the Joseph Collins Grants sold the land to Joshua Kennedy, and in 1855 the lands were transferred to Kennedy , Moore, and Co. Those two and another partner were engaged in the turpentine business , and worked hundreds of slaves in the woods gathering pine sap. The business thrived until the Civil War. Confederates burned the turpentine still to keep the Union forces from using it.

· In 1872, Kennedy & Moore sold their tract of land to a widow from Vermont, Mrs. Lizzie Breed, for 50 cents an acres. Her friends and relatives soon joined her here, many of them vowing to return to live in Magnolia Springs as soldiers in the Union Army. Within a few years there was a thriving colony of Northerners.

· The village has the only all-water mail route in the United States, with daily delivery by boat.

· Magnolia Springs voted to incorporate in 2007

· Sources: “Restore America Episode 141”, Home & Garden Television.

Elberta

· In 1904, a group of German businessmen from Chicago organized the Baldwin County Colonization Company. They purchased 55,000 acres of fertile farm land known as the Elberta district, named for the famed Elberta peach. The land was surveyed into 20 and 40 acre plots which were sold at nominal prices.

· The Town of Elberta was incorporated in 1952

· Baldwin County Heritage Museum

· Elberta Sausage Festival

o Although the recipe has changed somewhat over the years, the original secret recipe for Elberta's famous sausage is credited to Alfred Stucki who managed Elberta's Locker Plant from 1953 until his death in 1973.

Foley

· City of Foley

· Foley Convention & Visitors Bureau

· Foley Performing Arts Association

· Foley High School

· The City of Foley was started in 1901 by John B. Foley, a Chicago patent medicine salesman who moved to the area to begin Magnolia Land Company. He bought 50,000 acres and laid out lots which he sold for fifty dollars an acre. He also built sawmills, a grist mill and hundreds of miles of roads at his own expense.

· The L & N Depot was built in 1905 when the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Line came to Foley. The railroad was first known as the Bay Minette and Fort Morgan Railroad. The town became the center for shipping South Baldwin agricultural products.

o In 1971, L & N was discontinued service to Foley and announced it would destroy the building. John Snook bought the building for $1.00 and moved it to Magnolia Springs to serve as storage for Gulf Telephone. In 1995, it was returned to the original site and made into a museum.

· Hotel Magnolia was built in 1908 by John Foley. John Snook bought the hotel after WWII and refurbished it. It was closed for over 30 years until Marjorie Snook, John Snook’s widow, renovated and reopened it in 2005. The glass in the front door of the Hotel was taken from John Snook's grandfather's home in Ohio. Five U.S. Presidents have passed through the door.

· The Foley Hotel opened in 1927. The Foley Hotel cost $200,000 to build and furnish in an era when good Baldwin farmland could be bought for $25 an acre. Each of the 46 rooms was steam heated and had hot and cold running water. Forty of the rooms even had their own bath. At the southeast corner of Laurel and Alston was, as there is now, a drug store. The J.T. Dumas Drug Co. moved into the corner site in 1927. Today the lobby and downstairs area of the hotel house the gallery of the Foley Performing Arts Association. Where an art studio is now, was the Palm Theater. At the east side of the building on Laurel was the S.D. Gaar & Sons store. – PR 12/9/07

· Goodrich Aerosructures has both its Alabama Service Center and an Original Equipment Center in its Foley complex. The service center performs maintenance and repair, while the equipment center oversees steps in the production of nacelles. About 750 people work there, and the company estimates its local economic impact at between $55 million to $60 million

· The Tanger Outlet Center was built in 1988 and helped spur the growth of Foley.

Bon Secour

· Bon Secour lies on the Bon Secour River. Elevation is 10 feet above sea level.

· Bon Secour means "safe harbor". Although the name Bon Secour River appears on both French and English maps and the name Rio del Buen Socorro on Spanish maps all of much earlier date, it is traditionally held in Bon Secour that the name of the town originated with Jacques Cook who named it for the Cathedral de Bon Secours in Montreal.

· Land titles can be traced in existing record books as far back as 1793 when John Ward purchased a house and tract of land in Bon Secour. An eminent historian mentions specifically the claims of N. Cook, J. Cook, and Augustin LaCoste on the north side of Bon Secour River. On the south bank it names Johnson, F. Lany and Buck, while lower down on Bon Secour Bay itself was named W. E. Kennedy.

· Nichlos Cook, the father, and Jacques Cook, the son, have many descendants around Bon Secour. Edna Bertrand Laurendine who lives in the original Cook homestead started by Jacques Cook and completed by Jerome, his son. Near their homes the Cooks built a small school for their children and their neighbors' children. The Cook family also gave land for a cemetery across the road from their homes. This cemetery was started in 1835 and was originally planned as a private burial ground for the Cook family and their heirs. It was consecrated for the use of Roman Catholics. The earliest decipherable date on a stone now is 1868.

· The first Roman Catholic Church in the Bon Secour area was built on the south side of the river on land near the LaCoste home. It is generally thought the church site was a gift of the LaCoste family. This church, Our Lady of Good Health, was dedicated about 1890 by Bishop O'Sullivan according to his diary. Before that Mass had been said in either the Cook or the LaCoste home. This church served its congregation well for many years. It was damaged in the storm of 1917. After that it was carefully dismantled and carried across the river piece by piece and reassembled on land given by Mrs. Odile Cook Bertrand. It is built on the spot on which the Nichlos Cook house stood. Only the name was changed, for Mrs. Bertrand requested upon giving the property that the church henceforth be called Our Lady of Bon Secour.

· A Baptist congregation was founded in Bon Secour by Thomas Nelson as early as 1849 or 1850. The church stood on Plash's Island on the south side of the river. Today this denomination is served by the Friendship Baptist Church, founded in 1925. The church building is seen from the road to Swift's Landing.

· One of the earliest settlements on Bon Secour River, and one which antedates the Civil War, was Steele's Landing on the upper river.

· Bon Secour was a center of salt making during the Civil War. Salt was in short supply during the war. 'Wells' where salt was distilled are still evident today. A round hole about eight feet deep and twelve feet wide or wider was dug near the edge of the river. The sides of the wells were reinforced with logs. On the edges were built platforms or shelves for the workers to stand on. The water seeped through the ground from the bottom into the wells. The water was left standing for about a day, then bailed out by big dippers, put into big boilers and heated until the salt crystals were left by the evaporation of the water. Some water was hauled from the Gulf. At least once a month, a schooner would sail from Bon Secour to Mobile carrying salt that would sell for $40 a sack.

· The first post office was established in 1875 kept by Theresa Margaret Keller Miller and was called "Theresa." It has been discontinued.

· Services at St. Peter's-by-the-Sea began in 1878. It was built by Baltic German immigrants.

· In 1896, Frank E. Nelson, immigrated from Denmark, settled in the community of Oyster Bay, and founded the company that has become Bon Secour Fisheries. The schooner MARY ETTA was acquired by the Nelson's in 1896 and used as an oyster dredger, transporter, and shrimp boat. She was retired in 1969 to the Bon Secour River. In 2006, John Ray Nelson, along with his three sons, John Andrew, David, and Chris, continue the family run business. The primary source of fresh seafood is the fleet of 75 boats. Other fresh product comes by truck from the East Coast and various Gulf ports. Purchases are also made from frozen seafood processors along the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts. The Company markets its products to over 525 customers, wholesale distributors, restaurants, "fast food", cafeteria chains, and grocery chains. The majority of the product is distributed by Company owned refrigerated tractor-trailer units in a 1,000-mile radius.

· Oysters were gathered from private plant beds as well as public reefs. They were kept alive in pens offshore from the growers' residences and transported by sailing vessel to Mobile, where they were sold to restaurateurs and seafood vendors who met the boat at the foot of Eslava Street. Some of the oystermen began experimenting with using a trawl to catch shrimp. As the sailing vessels became motorized, shrimping became more prevalent and this activity extended the fishing season by another month. In 1951, the first shrimp boats large enough to work offshore in the Gulf of Mexico began to appear in the area. After the river channel was deepened to accommodate these vessels, two Gulf trawlers began operation out of Bon Secour Fisheries. Others soon joined these two boats.

· Construction of the Intracoastal Canal in the early 1930's brought about the demise of many of the oyster beds and planting grounds, either because it cut through their location or because the silt from the dredging covered them. In the mid-1930's, the WPA and CCC boys were brought in to the area to work on the roads and dig drainage ditches; and for the first time it became easier to go to Foley by road than to Mobile by water. The "buy" boats gave way to the dockside "shop", and delivery to the city was by motor truck.

· There are several major seafood businesses in Bon Secour. Bon Secour Seafood, Safe Harbor Seafood, Aquilla Seafood and Billy's Seafood all ship Gulf of Mexico seafood to all areas of the United States. The primary catch for the Bon Secour fishing fleet ranges from Mobile Bay shrimp to deep water "Royal Red" shrimp. Because wild shrimp caught by the local fleet must compete with farmed shrimp from overseas, economic pressures have driven many, multi-generational shimpers out of the business. As a result, the local shimpers, along with shrimpers out of the Mobile area have formed an alliance, the "Alabama Wild Shrimp Program”.

· Just inside the mouth of Bon Secour River there is a wide reach, large enough to serve as anchorage for a small fleet. To the south is the south fork of the river and Oyster Bay, and to the north is a crescent shaped shore known as Miller's Bend. Here was a settlement of some twelve or more homesteads complete with a church and a school. The settlement had received its name from the Miller family, which had come to Bon Secour in the mid-nineteenth century. In the year 1899 one of the most prominent citizens of Bon Secour was Captain John Henry Andrew Miller. Also at Miller's Bend were Charles Styron, Jacob Steiner, Conrad Billie, Herman Rickens, Lewis Rayfield, Peter Billie, Sam Wilson, J. H. A. Miller, Will Carver, Capt. Cash, St. Peter's School, St. Peter's Church, the Witt home, Krouters, Snellmans, Rohnwicks and Joe Brown. When the automobile came into general use, all moved and Miller's Bend withered and died. It is difficult to find the remains of most of these homes. Some burned, some were barged upriver and are homes in use now near Swift's Landing. The beautiful seaside church of St. Peter's burned about 1930 and the school was moved upriver and made into a home.

· Billy’s Seafood

· The Oar House & Riverside Inn on Baldwin County 6 on Bon Secour River in Gulf Shores was purchased in 2004 by investors from Mobile and New York for $2.8 million to build condominiums.

· Plash Island Bon Secour Land Use Study 2005

Plash Island

· Formerly the northernmost tip of the Fort Morgan Peninsula, the area became an island in the early 1940s when the Intracoastal Waterway was built.

· Plash Island was named for the family who settled it and was the home of Plash Island Seafood for 34 years.

· Plash's store was at the mouth of the south fork of Bon Secour River. The Intracoastal Canal was cut through the peninsula behind Plash’s store, cutting the Ridge Road off from Bon Secour.

· About 600 acres on or near Plash Island were annexed into Gulf Shores in October 2004.

Lillian

· Much of the land in what is now Lillian, as well as around Perdido Bay, was given via Spanish land grants

· A 16th century Spanish cemetery is maintained within the Spanish Cove community.

· Lillian was named after the first Postmaster's daughter in the 1880s.

· Lillian residents voted against incorporation in 2007

· The Spanish Cove community was first developed in the 1970s. The subdivision consists of about 750 acres with four neighborhoods. The community began with the building of traditional houses on the bay side of Baldwin County 99 (called Bay Side), and eventually three more neighborhoods were created on the west side of highway 99: one of conventional homes (Spanish Oaks), one for manufactured housing (Perdido Pines), and one for RVs and Park Model homes (Land Harbor).

Ono Island

· Ono Island was once known as "George Kee's Island," and also known as "Goat Island." George Ray Kee built the only house on the island, at the eastern end near Rabbit Island. He brought in more goats, allowed them to roam free, until there were an estimated 2,000 goats on the island plus the wild hogs that Kee allowed anyone to shoot for food. Property rights for the island were apparently not yet well established, and ultimately George Kee had to leave and lost possession of the land he had occupied. It was also known as Puma Island because it was widely believed that a pair of pumas roamed the island for many years. During World War II, the Navy at Pensacola used the island for target practice.

· Ono Island was first inhabited in 1963 by John Calhoun Golightly, a retired banker from Birmingham. In 1945, Golightly and 2 friends had thrown in $1,000 each and bought the eastern third of the island for $3,000 from an estate sale. In 1963, Golightly retired and built his own house with no TV and no telephone. When the rest of Ono was developed, he became known as the slightly unsocial old man who would walk his dogs on the waterfront and ignore his neighbors. Golightly's cinderblock home was still on the eastern end of the island until that area of the island was developed – PR 6/17/2001

· The original 50 investors in the Ono Island Development received an exterior lot for $15,000. The developers cut canals through the interior of the island, allowing those with interior lots access to the water.

· There are now about 840 houses on the island, about half of those are year-round residents.

· To enter the island, visitors must check in at a guard shack at the foot of the Ono Island bridge. The island has a small security force and a volunteer fire department manned by island residents.

· The island is contained entirely within the city of Orange Beach. It is linked to the mainland by a two-lane bridge. It features its own water tower, firestation, private harbour, and two recreation centers. Administration is conducted at Ono House. The main road bisecting the island down its eight mile length is River Road.

· In 2001, prices were: *Perimeter lots, which include access to the main waterways, range from $400,000 to $500,000. *A canal lot, which has water access via canals, range in price from $125,000 to $130,000. *And the interior lots, which don't include access to the water, range from $35,000 to $40,000. "

· Well-known residents include actor Tom Selleck and musicians Jimmy Buffett and Reba McIntyre.

· Alabama Point

Perdido Key

· Perdido Key is a barrier Island formed by the Old River and the Intracoastal Waterway, with the Alabama-Florida Border 3 miles from its western end. Perdido Pass, Lost Key and Perdido Bay reportedly got their name because of the pirates who hid there and ambushed ships going into the ports of Pensacola and Mobile, and Spanish explorers had difficulty finding the entrance to the bay. Perdido Key was originally known as Gulf Beach.

· Early maps indicate that at the time Perdido Pass was located near where the FloraBama Lounge and Package Store stands today. Hurricanes and other forces have moved the pass to where it lies now in Orange Beach, approximately 3 miles from the Florida boundary.

· The Flora-Bama Lounge and Package is only feet away from the Florida-Alabama border, but is officially located in Florida. It hosts the Annual Interstate Mullet Toss in the last full weekend of April. Additional events include the "Polar Bear Dip," the "Mullet Man Triathlon," and the "Super Bowl Chili Cook-off." It is owned by Joe Gilchrist.

· Perdido History

Orange Beach

· City of Orange Beach

· Orange Beach did have large orange and citrus groves. In the mid-1920s a salesman came into the area selling orange tree seedlings that were infected with blight. This wiped out the orange and citrus crops.

· In 1996, Richard Pugh of Fort Morgan was appointed “special master'' over Orange Beach's building permit department by the Baldwin County Circuit Court. He concluded that despite an almost completely new government, Orange Beach has yet to show the “will, the understanding or capability to enforce'' its development laws. Cecil Kilpatrick, an Orange Beach resident, filed suit in 1996 alleging that the city was failing to properly maintain zoning and permitting.

· In 2006 developers Ken Wall and Jim Brown were found guilty in federal court of bribing Orange Beach Mayor Steve Russo to use his influence in City Hall to get their development The Water Club approved.

o Wall and Russo were tried and convicted in Mobile's federal court, along with former City Attorney Larry Sutley, who faced public corruption charges unrelated to The Water Club. Brown pleaded guilty in April and became the government's key witness during the trial.

o Russo left office after being charged in January and was convicted on corruption charges in Sept. 2006

o Russo is serving a 10-year sentence at the Federal Prison Camp at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery. Russo's illegal take from various land deals and kickbacks orchestrated by developer Jim Brown amounted to more than $657,000.

o Larry Sutley, who authored the legal documents that founded Orange Beach in 1984 and has been city attorney since 1998, was granted an indefinite leave of absence by the City Council.

o Former City Councilman Joe McCarron traded his votes on the council and the Planning Commission to developers in exchange for their business with his insurance agency, according to prosecutors. He was replaced by Ed Carroll in 2004.

o During his testimony, Brown told a federal jury that he and Wall set up a deal in which Russo would, using only Brown's credit and none of his own money, make $400,000 by buying and rapidly reselling two waterfront lots in Orange Beach to one of the developers' investment partners. In exchange, Brown and prosecutors said, Russo would help push through plans for The Water Club, which would net the developers a $64 million profit.

§ Russo pocketed $400,000 by "flipping" a piece of waterfront property in Orange Beach to one of Brown's business partners. Russo bought the property, just over an acre on the southern shore of where Wolf Bay narrows into Portage Creek, from a Daphne woman named Claudia Bankester for $1.2 million. A review of bank records of Russo, as well as other evidence, does not reflect any apparent independent financial ability for Russo to purchase this property, according to the indictment. That same day Russo sold the property to Deck Investments LLC, a Louisiana corporation registered to investor Don Chunn, for $1.6 million. Through a corporation called Deck, Wall & Brown LLC, Brown and Chunn are business partners. Brown and Chunn share interest in another corporation, Island Resources LLC, which is registered to both men as well as a corporation held by local developer Ken Wall and a Mobile couple operating under CCM LLC.

o The City Council members later voted unanimously against The Water Club because of a rule in Orange Beach's zoning ordinance that requires those seeking planned-unit development status to own or have under contract all of the property they wish to build upon. At some point between the developers' indictments and the August trial, contracts Wall and Brown had to buy four of the six parcels that would constitute The Water Club's proposed 11-acre location expired and were not renewed.

§ Owners of the Water Club tract are listed as Romar Beach Acquisitions LLC, which, according to corporate filings, is registered to Jim Brown, Bay Minette lawyer Dan Blackburn, Tennessee investor Phil Martin and Romar Villas LLC, which is a corporation shared by Ken Wall and former Gulf Shores City Councilman Greg Kennedy. – PR 2/6/06

o Councilman Ed Carroll and Councilwoman Joni Blalock implied that the council was treating some developers unfairly while catering to others. Carroll asked Mayor Steve Russo why he had scheduled a vote on the three controversial items for Mandalay Beach, Portage Crossing, and Turquoise Place at 9 a.m. "Because," Russo replied "I highly resent the fact that we put all these people off at the last meeting when we were here, and I will continue to do this as long as there is an attempt to delay or stall things because some of you may or may not feel there's the votes to go your way." Russo denied playing favorites with developers and called the councilman an obstructionist.

o In a heated mayoral contest in 2004, Russo edged city Councilperson Brett Holk by fewer than 200 votes to retain the post. That contest was preceded by a frenzied campaign, in which Russo and his political allies, including McCarron, fought to retain control of the rapidly growing resort and the multimillion-dollar development decisions that came with the job. Developer-funded PACs raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support the pro-growth slate. Russo, according to his campaign finance disclosures, raised or accepted in-kind contributions totaling nearly $47,000 to support his election.

o Russo reported getting $8,000 from the Beach PAC, which raised more than $104,000 – including $35,000 from prominent developer Larry Wireman's partner, Judy Ramey – to support Russo and his allies. Thomas Eugene “Gene” Brett of Brett-Robinson gave $12,000. Dean Young, a former Republican candidate for Alabama secretary of state, started the Beach PAC. The Beach PAC spent nearly $30,000 with PMM Consulting Inc., Young’s political consulting firm. Young was appointed by Russo to an unpaid position on the city Planning Commission immediately following his re-election. – PR 8/16/04, 1/20/06

· Orange Beach World Championship Red Snapper Tournament

· Walker Marina and five acres on Terry Cove was acquired in 2004 by the City of Orange Beach.

o It was purchased using a combination of $7.6 million cash and property -- a small tract fronting Wolf Bay, valued at $2.1 million -- from an employee of former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy. Scrushy bought the marina and adjacent property along Canal Road in the summer of 2003 for a total of $3.45 million.

o With several marinas, including Griffith's, Capt. Trent, Hudson and Sun Harbor, destroyed in Hurricane Ivan or torn down to be redeveloped as condominiums, city official sought the Walker Marina property to ensure Orange Beach's charter fishing fleet would have a place from which to operate. – PR 10/23/05,12/18/06

o Plans to build a municipal marina for fare-carrying vessels have been revived after a plan to buy San Roc Cay was abandoned – PR 6/7/07

· Zeke’s Marina and its 5-acres were purchased for more than $11 million in January 2005 by four people – Tom Steber, Daphne resident Maurice Fitzsimons and two out-of-state investors, under the name ZLM Acquisitions.

· San Roc Cay opened in 1999 on Cotton Bayou and combines four restaurants, about 20 high-end retail shops, a 120-space underground parking lot and a 54-slip marina on four acres in a style that blends the architectural styles of Tuscany with those of south Florida. Robin Wade Jr., the owner, lives both in Orange Beach and Birmingham, where he runs Wade Sand & Gravel Co. Orange Beach City officials abandoned an offer to buy San Roc Cay in 2007.

· In August 2004, Dairy magnate George Barber Jr. applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for permission to build a 175-slip marina on the northern shore of Bay La Launch. The project, called Levin's Bend Marina, is proposed for the southeast corner of a 299-acre tract.

· Robinson Island was obtained by the City of Orange Beach in 2004.

o After annexing Robinson Island in 1988 and losing a $4.5 million lawsuit filed as a result, the city of Orange Beach asked the Alabama Supreme Court to rule on overturning the annexation. In 1992, a jury awarded Perdido Pass Developers Inc. $4.5 million in damages over the annexation.

· Orange Beach has annexed about 1,800 undeveloped acres north of Wolf Bay and Bay La Launch, all of which are owned by the David Lawrenz family. Dairy magnate George Barber Jr. also owns thousand of acres north of Wolf Bay.

o The Woerner family requested that Orange Beach annex the Soldiers Creek Golf Course and about 200 undeveloped acres nearby.

· Wolf Bay Bridge

o A bridge over Wolf Bay, should it be built, could boost Orange Beach’s population from 5,300 to 52,000 by 2015. That figure assumes the city would bring in about 5,000 acres north of the bay and see them developed fully.

· Horizons 20/20 is Orange Beach’s comprehensive planning plan adopted in 2006.

· Catman: Legend states during the Great Depression, three men lived in the swamp south of Canal Road (the current Gulf State Park area) for survival. Only two men made it out. The third became a hairy, half-man, half-cat monster lurking in the Orange Beach swamps. During the 1950's, old-timer's say the Catman hunted and stalked drivers along Old County Road Two, which became known locally as "Catman Road.” Catman Road is no longer open to cars but is now a backcountry hiking and biking trail.

Restuarants

· Live Bait Food & Spirits

· Bayside Grill

· The Keg: In August 2006, the Orange Beach City Council approved a law mandating that bars not sell alcohol between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. and that patrons must finish their last libations by 3 a.m. Three years before, the council passed a law that forced The Keg -- which had traditionally served alcohol 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- to cease booze sales from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. Orange Beach police have said that the all-hours hangout often attracted customers who had already been drinking at earlier closing bars, essentially luring drunk drivers. Owners of the Canal Road establishment, however, argued that The Keg has long been a place where service-industry workers congregate after they close down the beach community's other bars and restaurants. The Keg sued the city, seeking to overturn the city liquor law and recover lost profits. Peter Burns, a lawyer for The Keg, said he expected the adverse ruling and has already filed an appeal.

Gulf Shores

· In 1956, the recorded population of Gulf Shores was 120.

· In 1979, Hurricane Frederic caused major damage to Gulf Shores, but also spurred a building boom that radically changed the town.

· In 2004, Hurricane Ivan hit Gulf Shores, and many old buildings and businesses were demolished and sold for new developments.

· Hurricane Ivan Damage Photos

· Investors bought the entire 2.3-acre block of businesses on the beach side of Alabama 182 and Alabama 59 in Gulf Shores for $17.6 million in January 2005. The land included the Gulf Shores Motel, The Spot and the Barefoot Bar. Plans call for the buildings to be torn down and replaced with The Beach, a commercial district with shops, restaurants and condominium units.

· The National Shrimp Festival is held every October at the Gulf Shores Public Beach since 1971 and is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce

· Gulf Shores Museum

· The Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo is moving to 25-acres off Baldwin County 6 which was donated by the family of Clyde Weir.

o The zoo rose to national fame after a prime-time Animal Planet series, "The Little Zoo that Could," chronicled the menagerie's evacuation in the face of 2004's Hurricane Ivan as well as its subsequent recovery from the storm.

o The zoo opened in 1989 as Zooland Animal Park, a private enterprise of Joey Ward of Gulf Shores. In 1991, the Ward family created the Zoo Foundation, Inc., a non-profit corporation, and donated the 17 acres of real estate that makes up the zoo today. Three years later, the Ward family and the Erie Meyer Foundation donated an additional 13 acres, which are still undeveloped.

· BJ’s Seafood Restaurant, one of the oldest restaurants in Gulf Shores, was started by Mike Mitchell. It was bought by Birmingham-based developer Ronald Durham who plans to build Periwinkle Place, a 93-unit condominium complex.

· Souvenir City was started in 1956 by Clyde Weir. It burned and was rebuilt in 1996.

· The Hangout at the public beach was owned by Atmore businessman Adolph "Doc" Sutton, Sr. (died 2007) and his wife, Ouida. The Suttons moved to Gulf Shores in the late 1960’s, and after Hurricane Fredrick the rebuilt The Hangout, constructed a seafood restaurant Adolph's, built a dress shop named Sutton's Place and The Barefoot Bar all on Hwy. 59 on the beach. The Hangout was demolished. The inaugural Hangout Reunion was held in 2007.

· The Pink Pony Pub building first stood in 1950 as a 30-by-30 café/bar/bait shop at the foot of a fishing pier run by the Calloway family. During the fifties and sixties, the pink wooden building was part of Seahorse Cottages. The Mernik family bought the Seahorse Cottages and remodeled the tiny shack in 1969 and called it the Pink Pony as a tiny offspring of the pink Seahorse Cottages behind it. Hurricane Frederic leveled the wood building in 1979, and it was rebuilt out of solid concrete on concrete bridge pilings. It is currently owned by Bert and Susan Sanders and Chopper Schaffer. 

· Bayou Village

· Amusement Parks include The Track and Waterville USA. An amusement park was located on the northwest corner of Highways 59 & 181.

· Live Beach Cams

· LuLu's @ Homeport Marina

· The Original Oyster House

· Stretches of the shore just west of Little Lagoon pass have long been subject to erosion. In 2003, Gulf Shores spent about $2.8 million to pump about 700,000 cubic yards of sand from the bottom of Little Lagoon onto about 18,000 feet of shoreline west of the pass. That emergency berm, portions of which washed away in subsequent winter storms, was added to in 2006 as part of a 15-month, $25 million renourishment project that bolstered 16 miles of beach from Perdido Key to West Beach with several million cubic yards of sand from the Gulf floor.

Fort Morgan Peninsula

· In 1937 the first road to Fort Morgan opened when the Works Progress Administration completed 22 miles of pavement from Gulf Shores to the fort "which heretofore had been virtually inaccessible by land".

· In the late 1940s, Frank Boykin and Ben Rester owned about 3,000 acres on the Fort Morgan Peninsula. They leased the fort from the state and sold lots on the peninsula.

· In 2003, the Gulf Shores City Council voted to annex the 19.3-mile-long Alabama 180 right of way that bisects the Fort Morgan peninsula. Since then, Gulf Shores has annexed more than 80 parcels along the peninsula and introduced new zoning rules there that limit resort developments to about half the height and density allowed elsewhere in the city. – PR 10/12/07

o Some area residents say they were left in the dark about the proposal and were surprised when it was introduced at the city council meeting. "To do it and not let the people hear about it is wrong," Dudley Flotte said. Flotte, a Fort Morgan resident who attended the meeting for other business, urged the council to reconsider the measure and to vote on it at the next council meeting after more people were made aware of the resolution. – PR 4/16/03

o Shortly afterward, the Fort Morgan Civic Association sued the city, seeking to reverse the move, which the city used to establish a border with and thus gain the ability to annex private property along the peninsula. The civic association and three co-plaintiffs -- residents Ralph Gilges, Sarah DeMellier and former County Commissioner Charles Browdy -- argued in the suit that the city's move was an illegal form of annexation and would lead to over-development.

o A tentative settlement has been reached and has been approved by the Gulf Shores city council. The Fort Morgan Civic Association must still approve the terms. The main elements of the agreement require: 1) Both sides to agree on a consultant that will be hired by the city to draft a land use plan for the entire peninsula. 2) Creation a "Fort Morgan Peninsular Preservation District" that will forbid construction of buildings taller or more dense than those currently allowed under city rules. Generally Gulf Shores caps building height and density on the peninsula to about 15 habitable stories and 20 units per acre, which is about half as big as buildings can be in other parts of the city. 3) That the parties push during the next legislative session for a state law recognizing the preservation district and thus prohibiting future city governments from changing zoning rules on the peninsula without the consent of state lawmakers. – PR 12/18/07

o In a February court filing, the city, though noting that the idea of annexing the state property "was raised multiple times over the past several years," described a meeting between then-Mayor David Bodenhamer, Hand, Head and Head's lawyer, Sam Irby. "Mr. Head brought up the issue of the city annexing the state property and the possibility he may want to have property he owned annexed at some future date," the city wrote, adding that "some time after this meeting" Bodenhamer approached state officials about bringing the property into the city. Gulf Shores also wrote in the filing that a trio of others in the real estate business contacted City Hall before the annexation about bringing their Fort Morgan property into the city: Realtor Larry Powell, Kiva Dunes developer Jimmy Edgeman and Ron Owen, developer of the proposed Gulf Highlands condo project.

· Fort Morgan Civic Association

Shell Banks

· Shell Banks was a thriving resort community around the turn of the century. There was no way to get there except by sand roads or by boat. 

o Around 1917, there were about fifteen hundred inhabitants. There were two schools, several stores, two churches and a post office. 

o The popularity of Shellbanks was due to the Henrietta Hotel which was built in 1906. There was a pier described as extending three quarters of a mile into deep water where passengers and freight were exchanged from converted barges. These bay boats made stops at nearby cities of Daphne and Montrose. There was also a concrete promenade along the front of the bay for strolling guests to see and be seen. 

o The community began to decline after the Hurricane of 1916 and the advent of World War I. The final blow came when the hotel burned about 1926. All that remains today is a Fire Department, Shell Banks Baptist Church, Shell Banks Cemetery, and a few private residences.

· Shell Banks Cemetery is a small cemetery with only 270 visible graves remaining. The earliest burial with a remaining tombstone is dated 1864. It is located on Fort Morgan Road, eight miles west of Highway 59, behind Shell Banks Baptist Church. Shellbanks Cemetery was created when the Old Spanish Cemetery, also known as Persimmon Swamp Cemetery, became full. According to newspaper reports, shell banks consisting of scattered shells, pottery shards and Indian mounds were still visible around the 1940's. Shellbanks Cemetery is located in Gasque, about one mile from the old cemetery.

Bon Secour Wildlife Refuge

Navy Cove

· Navy Cove reportedly got its name because the British Navy anchored its fleet there to protect its commercial ships from pirates in the Gulf of Mexico

· St. Andrews Bay, on Navy Cove's eastern rim, was virtually paved with oysters, according to 19th-century accounts.

· Native Americans piled the oyster shells in layers called "middens". Huge sections of the middens still exist today; one site covers more than 12 acres

· In three test excavations at the site since 1934, no Indian burial grounds have turned up. Early inhabitants may have cremated their dead, or placed them in a communal burial mound elsewhere

· It was at or very near Navy Cove that one of Hernando De Soto's officers, Capt. Francisco Maldonado, waited nearly two years for his arrival.

Pilot Town

· By 1822, bar pilots had established a base at Navy Cove - "Pilot Town" - where French fishing villages had once strung along the shore. Like Frenchmen and Spaniards before them, the American bar pilots soon plied a lucrative trade from their knowledge of the entrance of Mobile.

· By 1860, even though none of the pilots had a deed to the land, they had built 14 homes along the shore, bringing their families down from Mobile each summer to enjoy the beach. Few families lived at Pilot Town year-round. The others had homes in Mobile so their children could attend school there but spend their summers at the beach.

· By 1872, 14 bar pilots pooled their money - $338 - to buy the 620 acres where they lived. They never divided the property, owning all of it equally.

· It was cumbersome to unload cargo from barges and rail cars in Mobile, ferry it on small boats 30 miles to Navy Cove, unload it on the wharf at Pilot Town, then reload it onto larger ships for the open Gulf.

· By the 1890s, Bay Minette railroad investors (The Mobile and Navy Cove Harbor and Railroad Co.) begins buying up property at Pilot Town, even from some from the bar pilots, and closing up legal loopholes to take possession of all the property. Their goal was to move cargo by rail from Pilot Town to Bay Minette and then to either Mobile or Montgomery.

· Mobile became the base for bar pilots after the Hurricane of 1906 destroyed Pilot Town, killing one 86-year-old pilot and the four children and wife of Capt. Dennis Ladnier.

o There were six families, 53 people in all, still at Pilot Town at the time.

o The hurricane of 1906 derailed work on the railroad to Navy Cove long enough for the government to dredge a ship channel in the Bay to a uniform depth. With a clear ship channel all the way to Mobile, there was little demand for a harbor or a railroad at Navy Cove.

· A 1960 lawsuit over a couple of cabins, a fence and a claim of arson pulled in hundreds of bar-pilot descendants, dozens of lawyers, six judges and the Alabama Supreme Court.

o Eleanor Nicholls staked out 2 acres in 1960, which she said her family had been paying taxes on since the 1906 hurricane. In 1964, Peyton Norville's fishing shack went up in flames, which was attributed in court documents to a suspicious wildfire. In a separate, admitted case of arson, Nichols said that in 1957 she set fire to another fishing shack that was built on what she felt was her property. Court records 30 years after the fact do not identify the shack's owner and those still living couldn't remember.

o In 1960 Quincie Godwin of Fairhope files a lawsuit against the Nicholls family of bar-pilot descendants over property Eleanor Nicholls had claimed at Pilot Town. In 1964 other descendants join in another lawsuit, which is combined with the 1960 case to include 300 acres and the descendants of all 14 bar pilots.

o In 1986 Baldwin County Circuit Judge Harry J. Wilters rules that families who have staked claims at Pilot Town for more than 20 years can keep it by "adverse possession." In 1987 the Alabama Supreme Court reverses the ruling, stating that some bar pilots cannot adversely possess against co-owners.

o The suit finally ended in 2000, when a Baldwin County judge issued an order to divide up the money from a 1998 land auction.

· Ninety acres of the bar pilots' land, including the Pilot Town site, was sold in 1998 at auction to the Langan family of Mobile. 200 acres to the southeast sells for $200,000.

o Baldwin County Circuit Judge Lyn Stuart orders Gulf Shores attorney Sam McKerall, appointed special master to sort out the title history, to split the proceeds of the sale among the bar pilot descendants and Geo Resources, owner of the railroad's interest

o A separate court-ordered auction in 1994 brought $175,000 for the full 300 acres, but then-Circuit Judge Pamela Baschab rejected the bids because she said they were too low.

o In the 1980s, Dot Dorgan pleaded with other bar-pilot descendants to band together to preserve the property, saving it as a memorial to their ancestors. She got nowhere, she said.

o Plans submitted by the Langan group for development of lots on the westernmost 25 acres of the roughly 90-acre property generated intense concern from area residents, environmentalists and historic preservationists.

· In 2005 PRM Realty Group Inc., a Chicago-based development firm bought nearly 148 acres from the Langan family for $18.85 million. They proposed a large-scale residential and marina complex on land that includes the site of Pilot Town. The marina would be linked to the deep water of the Intracoastal Waterway with a 9,000-foot-long access channel.

o PRM Realty's property also lies within the congressionally outlined acquisition area for the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge's 1,990-acre Little Point Clear Unit. That means that the refuge could have expanded from the eastern shore of St. Andrews Bay to encompass PRM Realty's land if the property had been bought by the government or one of the preservation groups that support the sanctuary, but any development would preclude that.

· The Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance says that only two grave markers remain at Navy Cove Cemetery; one of them is of a Charles Wallace, who died on Oct. 29, 1866. Wallace was one of the Mobile Bay bar pilots who settled the area.

· Fort Morgan Marina has been known at various times as “Hook, Line, and Sinker”, “Billy’s by the Bay”, and others. It was heavily damaged by Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina, and was annexed into Gulf Shores. It is currently the site of the proposed development Waters Edge.

Fort Morgan

· During the War of 1812, after Gen. James Wilkinson seized Mobile from the Spanish in 1813, the Americans established Fort Bowyer at the mouth of Mobile Bay and a shipyard about three miles east at Navy Cove.

o On Sept. 15, 1814, four British ships and 600 soldiers and Indians attacked the 130 American soldiers at Fort Bowyer. The British lost 170 men and 70 more were wounded, while the entrenched Americans lost only four soldiers.

o Returning from their defeat at New Orleans and after the end of the war, 38 British warships and 500 foot soldiers seized Fort Bowyer. The British quickly abandoned it after learning the war had ended.

· Construction of Fort Morgan was completed in 1834 and it was first garrisoned in March of that year.

· Alabama's first lighthouse, a massive brick lighthouse more than a 100 feet high, was built on Mobile Point in 1822. During the Civil War, the Union blockading fleet used to send lookouts to the top of the lighthouse to spy on incoming ships. One night, a group of Confederate volunteers, while being fired upon by the fleet, rowed out and detonated a charge at the base of the structure causing it to collapse.

· Union ground troops seized Pilot Town as a port to land ground troops from Aug. 9 to Aug. 16 to mount the ground attack on Fort Morgan until Gen. R.L. Page, a cousin of Gen. Robert E. Lee, surrendered on Aug. 23.

· Fort Morgan was purchased for $8,000 in 1927 by the state of Alabama.

· In the late 1940s, Frank Boykin and Ben Rester owned about 3,000 acres on the Fort Morgan Peninsula. Boykin persuaded Gov. Jim Folsom to give them a long-term, low-cost lease (under Rester's name) to the fort itself and about 400 surrounding acres. Boykin and Rester opened a hotel and restaurant and sold lots on the peninsula. The state paved the main peninsula road and built an airstrip nearby. Boykin's role was applauded at first by Hatchett Chandler, the eccentric historian and caretaker of Fort Morgan. Later, Chandler turned on him, devoting one of his many published essays to "Old Greedy," his name for the congressman. Ultimately, the hotel and restaurant lost money, and Boykin and Rester let the fort go back to the state

· The Civil War Preservation Trust has listed Fort Morgan among the nation's 10 most endangered Civil War sites: www.civilwar.orgslashnews/topten2006/

· The Alabama Historical Commission, which owns and operates the fort, recently approved a restoration plan that calls for hiring more staff, completing hurricane repairs and working out arrangements with the Baldwin County Commission and the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau to provide additional services.

· Mobile Bay Ferry

Baldwin County Geography

· The Perdido River runs 60 miles along the border of Florida and Alabama before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. The original, uncut Atlantic white cedar swamp is a rare habitat. The river rises in Escambia County and becomes the Florida-Alabama border as it travels 60 miles to Perdido Bay.

o Black water means that it is tannic water, which is tea-colored and acidic. Such rivers are uncommon outside the coastal areas of the South, and few undammed, unaltered black water rivers survive.

o The Nature Conservancy purchased 14,000 acres along the river and transferred it to the state Forever Wild program in 2006. Conservationists aim to preserve the entire river.

Sources and Reference of Baldwin County Information

· Jimmy Faulkner’s Mumblings--- Text Copyright 2007--- Revised 12/30/07

Disclaimer: These Notes are not original. They are complied from various sources, primarily the Press-Register (PR), Lagniappe, Mobile Bay Times (MBT), The Harbinger, and websites. Citations are being added retrospectively. These Notes are for personal, educational use only. Address all comments and corrections to: admin@flotte2.com