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Dauphin Island may appear permanent, but the island—and the waters surrounding it—has always been changing.

Alabama’s marine-science program began in a small building raised above the marshes of Heron Bay. It later moved aboard a converted United States Army Corps of Engineers quarters boat at Point aux Pins near Bayou La Batre. After that laboratory was destroyed by fire in 1971, the newly created Marine Environmental Sciences Consortium acquired a former United States Air Force radar installation on the eastern end of Dauphin Island.

Buildings once used to watch the skies above the Gulf Coast became laboratories, classrooms, dormitories, offices, and facilities for studying the waters below.

In this episode of Dauphin Island Diaries, we explore the history and mission of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and the Alabama Aquarium. We follow the Sea Lab’s development from its improvised beginnings near Bayou La Batre to its transformation of an abandoned military installation into one of Alabama’s most important centers for marine research and education.

We also journey through the four coastal environments interpreted by the Alabama Aquarium and studied by Sea Lab researchers: the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta, Mobile Bay, Alabama’s barrier islands, and the northern Gulf. Although the Aquarium presents these environments individually, they remain parts of one connected coastal system.

Finally, we examine the Sea Lab’s educational mission—from undergraduate and graduate study to Discovery Hall Programs, residential courses, school field trips, teacher development, internships, classroom resources, and BayMobile, the Sea Lab’s science classroom on wheels.

The Dauphin Island Sea Lab and Alabama Aquarium’s educational mission not only teaches us about the environment around the island, but also helps us understand our place within it.

Sources

Research for this episode was drawn primarily from:

• Personal interview with Mendel Graeber, director of the Alabama Aquarium at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab
• “The Dauphin Island Sea Lab—A Tale of Four Laboratories,” by George F. Crozier and Michael R. Dardeau. https://aquila.usm.edu/goms/vol28/iss1/14/
• The Dauphin Island Sea Lab official website https://www.disl.edu/
• “Dauphin Island Sea Lab and Estuarium,” Encyclopedia of Alabama https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/dauphin-island-sea-lab-and-estuarium-disl/

Special thanks to:

Mendel Graeber for sharing her firsthand knowledge of the Alabama Aquarium, the four coastal environments it interprets, the Sea Lab’s educational mission, and her own experience as a student in its residential marine-science program

The scientists, educators, staff members, students, and supporters whose work has built and sustained the Dauphin Island Sea Lab

🎙️ Credits

Hosted by Big John Summers

Produced by Summers Media Enterprises

Foley/Sound Effects recorded by Big John Summers

📣 Follow & Support

Follow Dauphin Island Diaries on Facebook, Instagram, and X for additional content, including on-location videos, historical interpretation, interviews, and stories from across Dauphin Island and the Alabama Gulf Coast.

🔗 Links

🐠 Dauphin Island Sea Lab and Alabama Aquarium:
https://www.disl.edu/

🧢 Merch & Apparel:
https://www.summersmediaenterprises.com/merch

📘 Follow on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/DauphinIslandDiaries/

📘 Check out The Tennessee History Nerd:
https://www.summersmediaenterprises.com/podcasts/tthn

Explore the Dauphin Island Diaries Catalog for more stories waiting to be heard!

Do you enjoy how we tell stories on Dauphin Island Diaries?  Check out our sister podcast The Tennessee History Nerd for similarly-told stories about the history of the Volunteer State!

If you love the stories you hear on Dauphin Island Diaries, and would like to see content from the places behind the stories, then check out our Facebook page...and click subscribe for access to exclusive subscriber-only video content.  It's only 99 cents per month!

Show your love for Dauphin Island and the Dauphin Island Podcast with official Dauphin Island Diaries merchandise!  Click the link in the episode notes to visit the merchandise page!

If you enjoyed today's story, don't keep it to yourself...share it with someone else you know who loves Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast!  And drop us a line and let us know what you think!  Click the Send Fan Mail Link in the episode description to share your thoughts with us!

If you enjoyed this episode, follow the show, share it with someone who loves history, and leave a review—it helps more folks discover the stories of Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast.

Send us Fan Mail

It's INTERVIEWSDAY!

This week on INTERVIEWSDAY (Interview Tuesday), we visit with Connie Roan, a longtime educator who spent the final years of her remarkable 44-year teaching career at Dauphin Island's historic Little Red Schoolhouse. Although the building now serves as the island's Welcome Center and museum, Connie shares firsthand memories of teaching during the school's final years and offers a fascinating look at how both the school and the island have changed over the decades. 

Among the topics we discuss:

• Connie's 44-year teaching career and why retirement didn't last very long.
• The history of the Little Red Schoolhouse from its construction in 1930 through its retirement as an active school building.
• Why the school was moved twice and the remarkable logistics involved in relocating the historic structure.
• What it was like teaching on Dauphin Island during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
• The school's growth from roughly 70–80 students to approximately 120 students during Connie's tenure.
• How the building earned the nickname "The Little Red Schoolhouse."
• Hurricane Frederic, Hurricane Katrina, and the remarkable durability of the historic building.
• Stories of island students once traveling by boat and boarding on the mainland to attend high school.
• Preserving portions of the original school inside today's Welcome Center.
• The Welcome Center's role as the island's museum, library, gathering place, and community hub.
• Connie's reflections on watching former students return years later with children of their own.

Connie's memories bring the Little Red Schoolhouse to life and remind us that historic buildings are more than lumber and brick. They are places where generations of stories were lived before they were ever recorded.

Explore the Dauphin Island Diaries Catalog for more stories waiting to be heard!

Do you enjoy how we tell stories on Dauphin Island Diaries?  Check out our sister podcast The Tennessee History Nerd for similarly-told stories about the history of the Volunteer State!

If you love the stories you hear on Dauphin Island Diaries, and would like to see content from the places behind the stories, then check out our Facebook page...and click subscribe for access to exclusive subscriber-only video content.  It's only 99 cents per month!

Show your love for Dauphin Island and the Dauphin Island Podcast with official Dauphin Island Diaries merchandise!  Click the link in the episode notes to visit the merchandise page!

If you enjoyed today's story, don't keep it to yourself...share it with someone else you know who loves Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast!  And drop us a line and let us know what you think!  Click the Send Fan Mail Link in the episode description to share your thoughts with us!

If you enjoyed this episode, follow the show, share it with someone who loves history, and leave a review—it helps more folks discover the stories of Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast.

Send us Fan Mail

For nearly a century, one small wooden schoolhouse has stood as a witness to the changing story of Dauphin Island.

Long before there was a bridge connecting the island to the mainland, children from fishing and oystering families gathered here to learn their lessons in a community that was still little more than a remote village along the Mississippi Sound at the mouth of Mobile Bay. Over the decades, the Little Red Schoolhouse watched as the island weathered the Great Depression, World War II, hurricanes, commercial development, and the transformation of Dauphin Island into one of Alabama's best-known coastal communities.

In this episode of Dauphin Island Diaries, we explore the remarkable history of the Little Red Schoolhouse, from its construction in 1931 to its years educating generations of island children, its dramatic relocations across the island, and its rebirth as the home of the Dauphin Island Museum and Welcome Center.

Today, the Little Red Schoolhouse is much more than a historic building. It is a museum, a gathering place, a lending library, and one of the island's most treasured landmarks. Step inside, and you'll discover not only the story of a school, but the story of the people who have called Dauphin Island home for generations.

Sources

Research for this episode was drawn primarily from:

• On-site research at the Little Red Schoolhouse Museum and Welcome Center
• Exhibits and interpretive materials at the Little Red Schoolhouse Museum
• Information provided by the Town of Dauphin Island
• The National Register of Historic Places plaque for the Little Red Schoolhouse
• WKRG News 5 reporting on the Little Red Schoolhouse (July 2024)

Special thanks to:

• Ms. Connie Roan, retired Dauphin Island teacher (and now a docent at the Dauphin Island Welcome Center), for sharing her memories of teaching on the island
• The volunteer docents at the Dauphin Island Welcome Center
• Former museum director David Graves for his work developing the museum exhibits
• Civil War historian Paul DeHaan for his contributions to the Battle of Mobile Bay exhibits
• Those who contributed to previous research compiled for earlier Dauphin Island Diaries and The Tennessee History Nerd episodes which informed this episode 

🎙️ Credits

Hosted by Big John Summers

Produced by Summers Media Enterprises

Foley/Sound Effects recorded by Big John Summers

📣 Follow & Support

Follow Dauphin Island Diaries on Facebook, Instagram, and X for additional content, including on-location videos, historical interpretation, interviews, and stories from across Dauphin Island and the Alabama Gulf Coast.

🔗 Links

🧢 Merch & Apparel:
https://www.summersmediaenterprises.com/merch

📘 Follow on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/DauphinIslandDiaries/

📘 Check out The Tennessee History Nerd:
https://www.summersmediaenterprises.com/podcasts/tthn

Explore the Dauphin Island Diaries Catalog for more stories waiting to be heard!

Do you enjoy how we tell stories on Dauphin Island Diaries?  Check out our sister podcast The Tennessee History Nerd for similarly-told stories about the history of the Volunteer State!

If you love the stories you hear on Dauphin Island Diaries, and would like to see content from the places behind the stories, then check out our Facebook page...and click subscribe for access to exclusive subscriber-only video content.  It's only 99 cents per month!

Show your love for Dauphin Island and the Dauphin Island Podcast with official Dauphin Island Diaries merchandise!  Click the link in the episode notes to visit the merchandise page!

If you enjoyed today's story, don't keep it to yourself...share it with someone else you know who loves Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast!  And drop us a line and let us know what you think!  Click the Send Fan Mail Link in the episode description to share your thoughts with us!

If you enjoyed this episode, follow the show, share it with someone who loves history, and leave a review—it helps more folks discover the stories of Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast.

Send us Fan Mail

It's INTERVIEWSDAY!

In this Interviewsday edition (Interview Tuesday) of Dauphin Island Diaries, I sit down with historian Mike Bunn to take a deeper look at the fascinating story behind last week's episode, "Ghost Town at the Top of the Bay."

Mike serves as Director of Historic Blakeley State Park and is one of the foremost authorities on the history of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta and the Alabama Gulf Coast. His research and expertise were invaluable in developing the story of Blakeley, a town that once rivaled Mobile for prominence before fading into history.

In this conversation, Mike discusses:

• The founding of Blakeley and why its location made it so important
• How Blakeley competed with Mobile during the early 19th century
• Life in one of Alabama's earliest boomtowns
• The economic, political, and geographic forces that shaped the town's rise and decline
• How Historic Blakeley State Park preserves and interprets this remarkable chapter of Gulf Coast history

While last week's episode told the story of Blakeley's rise and fall, this interview allows us to go much deeper into the history with one of the people who knows it best. If you enjoyed "Ghost Town at the Top of the Bay," you'll find even more context, insight, and fascinating details in this extended conversation.

🎙️ Credits

Hosted by Big John Summers

Produced by Summers Media Enterprises

Foley/Sound effects recorded by Big John Summers

📣 Follow & Support

Follow Dauphin Island Diaries on Facebook, Instagram, and X for additional content, including on-location videos, historical interpretation, and stories from across the Alabama Gulf Coast.

🔗 Links

🧢 Merch & Apparel:
https://www.summersmediaenterprises.com/merch

📘 Follow on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/DauphinIslandDiaries/

📘 Check out The Tennessee History Nerd:
https://www.summersmediaenterprises.com/podcasts/tthn

Explore the Dauphin Island Diaries Catalog for more stories waiting to be heard!

Do you enjoy how we tell stories on Dauphin Island Diaries?  Check out our sister podcast The Tennessee History Nerd for similarly-told stories about the history of the Volunteer State!

If you love the stories you hear on Dauphin Island Diaries, and would like to see content from the places behind the stories, then check out our Facebook page...and click subscribe for access to exclusive subscriber-only video content.  It's only 99 cents per month!

Show your love for Dauphin Island and the Dauphin Island Podcast with official Dauphin Island Diaries merchandise!  Click the link in the episode notes to visit the merchandise page!

If you enjoyed today's story, don't keep it to yourself...share it with someone else you know who loves Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast!  And drop us a line and let us know what you think!  Click the Send Fan Mail Link in the episode description to share your thoughts with us!

If you enjoyed this episode, follow the show, share it with someone who loves history, and leave a review—it helps more folks discover the stories of Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast.

Send us Fan Mail

200 years ago, there was another city at the head of Mobile Bay.

For a brief but remarkable time, Blakeley rivaled Mobile in size, commerce, and ambition. Founded by a Connecticut entrepreneur who believed there was room for another great port on the Gulf Coast, Blakeley seemed destined to become one of the most important cities in the young state of Alabama.

But history had other plans.

In this episode of Dauphin Island Diaries, we explore the rise and fall of the ghost town just above Mobile Bay. Along the way, we'll look at the optimism of the early American frontier, the opening of the Old Southwest, steamboats, yellow fever, land speculation, and the fierce economic rivalry between Blakeley and Mobile that ultimately shaped the future of Mobile Bay.

Today, only the old courthouse foundations, a cemetery, and memories remain. Yet if you stand beneath the live oaks overlooking the Tensaw River, it's still almost  possible to imagine the bustling town that once stood there...and to wonder what might have been had history chosen a different path.

Sources

Research for this episode was drawn primarily from:

• An on-site interview with Mike Bunn, Executive Director of Historic Blakeley State Park

Additional information was drawn from:

• Peter J. Hamilton, "Some Southern Yankees" (The American Historical Magazine, October 1898)
• Story of the Tensaw, Blakely, Spanish Fort, Jackson Oaks, Fort Mims by Prescott A. Parker
• Encyclopedia of Alabama
• Voices from 1818
• ExploreSouthernHistory.com
• UnitedStatesGhostTowns.com
• Additional historical and archival resources used for fact-checking, chronology, and background research

🎙️ Credits

Hosted by Big John Summers

Produced by Summers Media Enterprises

Foley/Sound Effects recorded by Big John Summers

📣 Follow & Support

Follow Dauphin Island Diaries on Facebook, Instagram, and X for additional content, including on-location videos, historical interpretation, interviews, and stories from across Dauphin Island and the Alabama Gulf Coast.

🔗 Links

🧢 Merch & Apparel:
https://www.summersmediaenterprises.com/merch

📘 Follow on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/DauphinIslandDiaries/

📘 Check out The Tennessee History Nerd:
https://www.summersmediaenterprises.com/podcasts/tthn

Explore the Dauphin Island Diaries Catalog for more stories waiting to be heard!

Do you enjoy how we tell stories on Dauphin Island Diaries?  Check out our sister podcast The Tennessee History Nerd for similarly-told stories about the history of the Volunteer State!

If you love the stories you hear on Dauphin Island Diaries, and would like to see content from the places behind the stories, then check out our Facebook page...and click subscribe for access to exclusive subscriber-only video content.  It's only 99 cents per month!

Show your love for Dauphin Island and the Dauphin Island Podcast with official Dauphin Island Diaries merchandise!  Click the link in the episode notes to visit the merchandise page!

If you enjoyed today's story, don't keep it to yourself...share it with someone else you know who loves Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast!  And drop us a line and let us know what you think!  Click the Send Fan Mail Link in the episode description to share your thoughts with us!

If you enjoyed this episode, follow the show, share it with someone who loves history, and leave a review—it helps more folks discover the stories of Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast.

Send us Fan Mail

It's INTERVIEWSDAY!

In this Interviewsday edition (Interview Tuesday) of Dauphin Island Diaries, I sit down with Jason Herrmann of the Alabama Marine Resources Division to explore one of the Gulf Coast's most valuable natural resources... oysters.

Jason serves as Alabama's Shellfish Aquaculture Program Coordinator and has spent years working to conserve, restore, and expand oyster resources in Alabama waters. His expertise helped provide much of the background research for our recent episode, "The World Is Your Oyster," and in this conversation he explains why oysters have been so important to the Gulf Coast's history, economy, and environment.

In this conversation, Jason discusses:

• Alabama's oyster industry, past and present
• Oyster reefs and their importance to coastal ecosystems
• Shellfish aquaculture and how oysters are raised today
• Challenges facing oyster populations in Mobile Bay and surrounding waters
• Conservation and restoration efforts along Alabama's coast
• Why oysters have played such an important role in the history of Dauphin Island and the Alabama Gulf Coast

Like many of our Interviewsday conversations, this episode provides the deeper background behind one of our historical stories. While "The World Is Your Oyster" explored the history of Alabama's oyster industry, this interview offers insight from someone who works every day to help ensure that tradition continues for future generations.

🎙️ Credits
Hosted by Big John Summers

Produced by Summers Media Enterprises

Foley/Sound effects recorded by Big John Summers

📣 Follow & Support
Follow Dauphin Island Diaries on Facebook, Instagram, and X for additional content, including on-location videos, historical interpretation, and stories from across the Alabama Gulf Coast.

🔗 Links
🧢 Merch & Apparel:
https://www.summersmediaenterprises.com/merch

📘 Follow on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/DauphinIslandDiaries/

📘 Check out The Tennessee History Nerd:
https://www.summersmediaenterprises.com/podcasts/tthn

Explore the Dauphin Island Diaries Catalog for more stories waiting to be heard!

Do you enjoy how we tell stories on Dauphin Island Diaries?  Check out our sister podcast The Tennessee History Nerd for similarly-told stories about the history of the Volunteer State!

If you love the stories you hear on Dauphin Island Diaries, and would like to see content from the places behind the stories, then check out our Facebook page...and click subscribe for access to exclusive subscriber-only video content.  It's only 99 cents per month!

If you enjoyed today's story, don't keep it to yourself...share it with someone else you know who loves Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast!  And drop us a line and let us know what you think!  Click the Send Fan Mail Link in the episode description to share your thoughts with us!

If you enjoyed this episode, follow the show, share it with someone who loves history, and leave a review—it helps more folks discover the stories of Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast.

Send us Fan Mail

The Sand Island Lighthouse stands three miles south of Dauphin Island at the mouth of Mobile Bay. Today it sits alone on a small ring of granite rip rap, battered by storms, erosion, and time. But it wasn't always that way.

In this episode of Dauphin Island Diaries, we trace the remarkable history of Alabama's most iconic lighthouse, from its beginnings as an iron spindle placed on a shifting sand island to the towering brick sentinel that has watched over Mobile Bay for more than 150 years.

More than a lighthouse story, this is the story of man's attempt to build something permanent on land that never stopped moving.

Today, the Sand Island Lighthouse remains standing, but its future is uncertain. Whether it survives another century or falls in the next great storm, it continues to stand watch at the entrance to Mobile Bay, a silent witness to generations of Gulf Coast history.

Sources

Research for this episode was drawn primarily from:

• Sand Island Lighthouse Chronicles by Warren Lee

Additional information was drawn from:

• Lighthouse Friends
• Lighthouse Digest
• United States Coast Guard Historical Archives
• Encyclopedia of Alabama
• Alabama Heritage
• WKRG News 5
• The Lighthouse Hunters
• A History of Dauphin Island Under Five Flags by Frances Young
• Additional historical and archival resources used for fact-checking, chronology, and photographic research

Historic photographs and supporting documentation were consulted from multiple archival collections, including the United States Coast Guard and University of South Alabama archival materials referenced by the sources above.

🎙️ Credits

Hosted by Big John Summers

Produced by Summers Media Enterprises

Foley/Sound effects recorded by Big John Summers

📣 Follow & Support

Follow Dauphin Island Diaries on Facebook, Instagram, and X for additional content, including on-location videos, historical interpretation, and stories from across Dauphin Island and the Alabama Gulf Coast.

🔗 Links

🧢 Merch & Apparel:
https://www.summersmediaenterprises.com/merch

📘 Follow on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/DauphinIslandDiaries/

📘 Check out The Tennessee History Nerd:
https://www.summersmediaenterprises.com/podcasts/tthn

Explore the Dauphin Island Diaries Catalog for more stories waiting to be heard!

Do you enjoy how we tell stories on Dauphin Island Diaries?  Check out our sister podcast The Tennessee History Nerd for similarly-told stories about the history of the Volunteer State!

If you love the stories you hear on Dauphin Island Diaries, and would like to see content from the places behind the stories, then check out our Facebook page...and click subscribe for access to exclusive subscriber-only video content.  It's only 99 cents per month!

Show your love for Dauphin Island and the Dauphin Island Podcast with official Dauphin Island Diaries merchandise!  Click the link in the episode notes to visit the merchandise page!

If you enjoyed today's story, don't keep it to yourself...share it with someone else you know who loves Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast!  And drop us a line and let us know what you think!  Click the Send Fan Mail Link in the episode description to share your thoughts with us!

If you enjoyed this episode, follow the show, share it with someone who loves history, and leave a review—it helps more folks discover the stories of Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast.

Send us Fan Mail

In this Interviewsday edition of Dauphin Island Diaries, I sit down with longtime Dauphin Island resident Anita Phillips to talk about life on the island, how it has changed over the years, and some of the people and places that have helped shape its unique character.

Anita is a familiar face to many visitors. She has spent years serving as a docent at the Dauphin Island Welcome Center, helping residents and tourists alike learn more about the island's history, culture, and attractions. She is also the widow of the late architect and artist Gene Phillips, whose colorful condominium designs along LeMoyne Drive have become one of the island's most recognizable landmarks.

In this conversation, Anita shares memories of:

• First date on Dauphin Island

• The changes she has witnessed on the island over the decades

• Tourism and community life on Dauphin Island

• The work of the Dauphin Island Welcome Center

• Local traditions and island culture

• Her husband Bill Phillips and the story behind the colorful "birdhouse" condominiums on LeMoyne Drive

• Some of the people who have helped shape modern Dauphin Island

Like many of our Interviewsday conversations, this episode offers a personal perspective that complements the historical stories we tell on Dauphin Island Diaries. History is ultimately about people, and few people know the island and its community better than Anita Phillips.

🎙️ Credits

Hosted by Big John Summers 

Produced by Summers Media Enterprises 

Foley/Sound effects recorded by Big John Summers

📣 Follow & Support

Follow Dauphin Island Diaries on Facebook, Instagram, and X for additional content, including on-location videos, historical interpretation, and stories from across the Alabama Gulf Coast.

🔗 Links

🧢 Merch & Apparel:
https://www.summersmediaenterprises.com/merch

📘 Follow on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/DauphinIslandDiaries/

📘 Check out The Tennessee History Nerd:
https://www.summersmediaenterprises.com/podcasts/tthn

Explore the Dauphin Island Diaries Catalog for more stories waiting to be heard!

Do you enjoy how we tell stories on Dauphin Island Diaries?  Check out our sister podcast The Tennessee History Nerd for similarly-told stories about the history of the Volunteer State!

If you love the stories you hear on Dauphin Island Diaries, and would like to see content from the places behind the stories, then check out our Facebook page...and click subscribe for access to exclusive subscriber-only video content.  It's only 99 cents per month!

Show your love for Dauphin Island and the Dauphin Island Podcast with official Dauphin Island Diaries merchandise!  Click the link in the episode notes to visit the merchandise page!

If you enjoyed today's story, don't keep it to yourself...share it with someone else you know who loves Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast!  And drop us a line and let us know what you think!  Click the Send Fan Mail Link in the episode description to share your thoughts with us!

If you enjoyed this episode, follow the show, share it with someone who loves history, and leave a review—it helps more folks discover the stories of Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast.

Send us Fan Mail

For 74 days in 1810, there was a country on the Gulf Coast that most Americans have never heard of.

It had a flag, a government, a governor, and a claim to territory stretching from modern-day Louisiana toward Mobile Bay and the Perdido River. Then, almost as quickly as it appeared, it vanished.

In this episode of Dauphin Island Diaries, we explore the story of the Republic of West Florida, a short-lived nation born from the collision of Spanish colonial rule, American expansion, frontier settlement, and international intrigue during the age of Napoleon.

Along the way, we'll visit:

• Spanish West Florida and its disputed boundaries
• The Louisiana Purchase and competing territorial claims
• The Federal Road and Fort Stoddert
• Reuben Kemper and the early filibuster movements
• The capture of Fort San Carlos at Baton Rouge
• Governor Fulwar Skipwith and the Republic of West Florida
• Mobile Bay's place in the struggle for control of the Gulf Coast
• The annexation of West Florida by the United States

We'll also examine the roles played by James Madison, William Claiborne, Harry Toulmin, James Wilkinson, and others whose decisions helped shape the future of the Gulf Coast.

Though the Republic of West Florida existed for only 74 days, the events surrounding its rise and fall helped determine the future of modern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.

Sources

Research for this episode was drawn primarily from:

• The Rogue Republic: How Would-Be Patriots Waged the Shortest Revolution in American History by William C. Davis
• Fort Stoddert: American Sentinel on the Mobile River, 1799-1814 by Mike Bunn and Susie Hartman

Additional information was drawn from:

• Alabama Encyclopedia
• Dictionary.com
• Historical reference materials used for fact-checking and chronology

Special thanks to historian Mike Bunn for insights shared during an interview conducted on June 9, 2026, which provided additional context for several aspects of this story.

🎙️ Credits

Hosted by Big John Summers

Produced by Summers Media Enterprises

Foley/Sound effects recorded by Big John Summers

📣 Follow & Support

Follow Dauphin Island Diaries on Facebook, Instagram, and X for additional content, including on-location videos, historical interpretation, and stories from across Tennessee.

Support the show on Patreon for:

• Early access to episodes

• Ad-free listening

• Exclusive bonus content, including full-length interviews

🔗 Links

🧢 Merch & Apparel:
https://www.summersmediaenterprises.com/merch

📘 Follow on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/DauphinIslandDiaries/

📘 Check out The Tennessee History Nerd:
https://www.summersmediaenterprises.com/podcasts/tthn

Explore the Dauphin Island Diaries Catalog for more stories waiting to be heard!

Do you enjoy how we tell stories on Dauphin Island Diaries?  Check out our sister podcast The Tennessee History Nerd for similarly-told stories about the history of the Volunteer State!

If you love the stories you hear on Dauphin Island Diaries, and would like to see content from the places behind the stories, then check out our Facebook page...and click subscribe for access to exclusive subscriber-only video content.  It's only 99 cents per month!

Show your love for Dauphin Island and the Dauphin Island Podcast with official Dauphin Island Diaries merchandise!  Click the link in the episode notes to visit the merchandise page!

If you enjoyed today's story, don't keep it to yourself...share it with someone else you know who loves Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast!  And drop us a line and let us know what you think!  Click the Send Fan Mail Link in the episode description to share your thoughts with us!

If you enjoyed this episode, follow the show, share it with someone who loves history, and leave a review—it helps more folks discover the stories of Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast.

Send us Fan Mail

🎙️ FREE INTERVIEW RELEASE 🎙️

This week, we're opening up a conversation that has never been released before.

Back in March, I sat down with Shari Pope Moon in Cadillac Square on Dauphin Island. We weren't in a studio. We weren't in front of a microphone booth. We were sitting at a picnic table under the trees, listening to the sounds of the island around us and talking about family, memory, and the place that has shaped generations of her family.

What followed was less of an interview and more of a conversation.

Shari shares the story of her parents' island love story, the family tradition that has brought generations back to Dauphin Island year after year, the old casino and Isle Dauphine Club, the original drawbridge, Hurricane Frederic, Fort Gaines, the Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, and what makes this island feel like home to so many people.

If you've ever wondered why people fall in love with Dauphin Island and keep coming back generation after generation, this conversation helps explain it.

So grab your favorite beverage, settle in, and join us for this previously unreleased conversation with Shari Pope Moon.

🌊 Available now.

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Explore the Dauphin Island Diaries Catalog for more stories waiting to be heard!

Do you enjoy how we tell stories on Dauphin Island Diaries?  Check out our sister podcast The Tennessee History Nerd for similarly-told stories about the history of the Volunteer State!

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