Dauphin Island Diaries

Big John Summers
  • 5.0 (1)
  • History

A long-form history podcast focused on the people, places, and stories that shaped Dauphin Island and the Alabama Gulf Coast.

  1. 1d ago

    DID Bonus INTERVIEWSDAY Material (7) - Interview with Bella Myers (Topics of Discussion: The Pelican Girls, Their Role as the Mothers of Mobile, and the Story of their Arrival in the Colony of French Louisiana)

    Send us Fan Mail It’s INTERVIEWSDAY! This week on INTERVIEWSDAY (Interview Tuesday), we visit with Bella Myers, a Mobile-area historian and tour guide with Bienville Bites Food Tour, for an extended conversation about the remarkable women remembered as the Pelican Girls. In 1704, twenty-three young Frenchwomen crossed the Atlantic aboard Le Pélican after being promised new lives in France’s struggling Louisiana colony. Instead, they encountered a dangerous voyage, yellow fever, primitive living conditions, food shortages, absent husbands, and a settlement that bore little resemblance to the “promised land” they had been led to expect. Yet the Pelican Girls endured. They married, established families, demanded better living conditions, and helped transform a rough colonial outpost into a permanent community. Their resistance became known as the Petticoat Rebellion, and their descendants would spread throughout Mobile, New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, and beyond. Bella joins us to discuss: Who the Pelican Girls were and why they agreed to leave France;Their difficult journey from Paris to Rochefort, across the Atlantic, and through the Caribbean;Their arrival at Massacre Island—present-day Dauphin Island—and Fort Louis de la Mobile;The yellow fever epidemic that followed the arrival of Le Pélican;The marriages, hardships, and resistance of the young women;Their role as the “mothers of Mobile”;The Pelican Girls who became some of Dauphin Island’s earliest European settlers;Henri de Tonti, the legendary “Iron Hand”;Mobile’s early Mardi Gras traditions;The Native American, African, Caribbean, French, and Spanish influences that helped shape Mobile’s distinctive culture and foodways;The creation of the Pelican Girls historical marker in downtown Mobile;The Pelican Girls Mystic Society; andBella’s work with Bienville Bites to bring Mobile’s history to life through food and storytelling.Recorded on August 1—Pelican Girls Day in Mobile—this conversation explores the strength, resilience, and determination of twenty-three young women whose contributions to the history of Mobile and the Gulf Coast deserve to be remembered. Learn more about Bella Myers and the historical food tours offered by Bienville Bites Food Tour at bienvillebitesfoodtour.com. Questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes? Email John at john.summers@summersmediaenterprises.com. 🎙️ 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.

    DID Bonus INTERVIEWSDAY Material (7) - Interview with Bella Myers (Topics of Discussion: The Pelican Girls, Their Role as the Mothers of Mobile, and the Story of their Arrival in the Colony of French Louisiana)

  2. Aug 18

    DID Ep 10 - Pelican on the Bay - The Story of the Pelican Girls

    Send us Fan Mail In 1704, twenty-three young Frenchwomen crossed the Atlantic aboard the Pelican in search of husbands—and a future—in the struggling colony of French Louisiana. They had been promised opportunity in a land described to them as almost a paradise. Instead, they found an overcrowded ship, months at sea, yellow fever, hunger, primitive living conditions and a settlement wholly unprepared to receive them. In this episode of Dauphin Island Diaries, we tell the story of the Pelican Girls—the first organized company of Frenchwomen sent to the Mobile colony expressly to establish marriages, households and permanent families. We follow their journey from the religious communities and convent schools of France to Rochefort, across the Atlantic to Cap-Français and Havana, and finally to Massacre Island—present-day Dauphin Island. From there, they traveled upriver to Fort Louis on Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff, where the “Promised Land” they had been offered proved to be little more than a deteriorating wooden fort and a scattering of crude houses. We also examine the marriages that followed their arrival, including the courtship and marriage of Marie Briard and Antoine Rivard de La Vigne. We explore the marriage contracts that protected the women’s legal and property rights, the yellow-fever epidemic that devastated the colony, and the hardships faced by the new households. The Pelican Girls were not merely passive brides delivered to waiting husbands. According to tradition, they challenged the colony’s living conditions in what became known as the Petticoat Rebellion. Marie-Françoise de Boisrenaud—the women’s governess and protector—became an educator, political participant and outspoken critic of Bienville’s administration. Finally, we separate documented history from the legends that grew around the Pelican Girls, including their association with the Cassette Girls, the Petticoat Insurrection and the creation of gumbo. Those traditions cannot always be proved through surviving records—but neither should they be dismissed simply because the women themselves left few written accounts of their experiences. The Pelican Girls survived the voyage, disease, hunger and the uncertain conditions of an isolated frontier settlement. They established households, bore children and helped transform French Louisiana from a remote military outpost into a permanent colonial society. The promised land they were assured did not exist—so they helped build one. Sources Research for this episode was drawn primarily from: Jay Higginbotham’s Old Mobile: Fort Louis de la Louisiane, 1702–1711Peter J. Hamilton’s Colonial Mobile“The Pelican Girls,” Encyclopedia of AlabamaThe chapter devoted to the Pelican Girls in Hidden History of MobilePersonal interview with Mobile historian and Bienville Bites food-tour guide Bella MyersSpecial Thanks Bella Myers for sharing her extensive knowledge of the Pelican Girls, helping distinguish the documented history from later tradition, and explaining why these women remain so important to Mobile’s public memoryBella Myers, Dr. Allison Henry and the others whose work helped secure a historical marker honoring all twenty-three Pelican Girls in downtown MobileThe historians, archivists and descendants whose work has preserved the names and stories of the women who arrived aboard the Pelican in 1704📜 Pelican Girls Historical Marker: https://www.cityofmobile.gov/pelican-girl-historic-marker-unveiling/🎙️ 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.

    DID Ep 10 - Pelican on the Bay - The Story of the Pelican Girls

  3. Aug 11

    DID Bonus INTERVIEWSDAY Content (6) - Interview with Mendel Graeber (Topics of Discussion: The Dauphin Island Sea Lab, The Alabama Aquarium, and Their History, Roles, and Significance in South Alabama)

    Send us Fan Mail It’s INTERVIEWSDAY! This week on INTERVIEWSDAY (Interview Tuesday), we visit with Mendel Graeber, director of the Alabama Aquarium at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. This is not a traditional sit-down interview. Mendel takes us on a walking tour through part of the aquarium while explaining its history, its organization around Alabama’s major coastal ecosystems, and its place within the Sea Lab’s larger research and educational mission. Along the way, you’ll hear the sounds of the aquarium and its visitors as we explore exhibits representing the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta, Mobile Bay and several of the animals that inhabit these remarkable environments. Among the topics we discuss: How the creation of the Marine Environmental Sciences Consortium led to the development of today’s Dauphin Island Sea Lab.The Sea Lab’s acquisition and reuse of facilities from the former Air Force installation on Dauphin Island.Why the Alabama Aquarium opened in 1998 and how it provides the public with a window into the Sea Lab’s work.Mendel’s first experience at the Sea Lab as a high-school student in its month-long summer course.Discovery Hall Programs and the field-trip, outreach and residential opportunities available to students.How schools from Tennessee and across the country can arrange educational visits to the Sea Lab.The scholarships and community support that may help students participate in Sea Lab programs.How the aquarium follows a north-to-south journey through four major coastal ecosystems: the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta, Mobile Bay, Dauphin Island and the northern Gulf of Mexico.The planned renovation that will extend the aquarium’s journey into the oceanic zone and the deep Gulf.The life-size mosasaur model suspended above the aquarium lobby.The Mobile Bay watershed and its connections to Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee.The Sea Lab’s longstanding research partnership with the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo.Why the aquarium completed a major interpretive renovation in 2023.E.O. Wilson’s childhood connection to Mobile and the Mobile-Tensaw Delta.Baby alligators, invasive nutria and the recovery of the region’s alligator population.The Rays of the Bay Touch Tank, including cownose rays, Atlantic stingrays and bonnethead sharks.Flounder camouflage, male seahorses, live shrimp, blue crabs and other animals found in and around Mobile Bay.The creation of Gaillard Island from dredged material and its role in the recovery of the brown pelican.Fish-tagging technology, oyster reefs and the growth of Alabama oyster aquaculture.The important distinction between scientific research, environmental advocacy, restoration and regulation.Mendel’s tour demonstrates that the Alabama Aquarium is much more than a collection of exhibits. It is the public face of a major marine research and educational institution—and a place where visitors can better understand the extraordinary environments surrounding Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay and the northern Gulf of Mexico. 🎙️ 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.

    DID Bonus INTERVIEWSDAY Content (6) - Interview with Mendel Graeber (Topics of Discussion: The Dauphin Island Sea Lab, The Alabama Aquarium, and Their History, Roles, and Significance in South Alabama)

  4. Aug 4

    DID Ep 9 - Bay Studies: The Dauphin Island Sea Lab and the Alabama Aquarium

    Send us Fan Mail 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.

    DID Ep 9 - Bay Studies: The Dauphin Island Sea Lab and the Alabama Aquarium

  5. Jul 28

    DID Bonus INTERVIEWSDAY Material (4) - Interview with Connie Roan

    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.

    DID Bonus INTERVIEWSDAY Material (4) - Interview with Connie Roan

  6. Jul 21

    DID Ep 8 - School Days: The Little Red Schoolhouse

    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 CenterExhibits and interpretive materials at the Little Red Schoolhouse MuseumInformation provided by the Town of Dauphin IslandThe National Register of Historic Places plaque for the Little Red SchoolhouseWKRG 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 islandThe volunteer docents at the Dauphin Island Welcome CenterFormer museum director David Graves for his work developing the museum exhibitsCivil War historian Paul DeHaan for his contributions to the Battle of Mobile Bay exhibitsThose 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.

    DID Ep 8 - School Days: The Little Red Schoolhouse

  7. Jul 14

    DID Bonus INTERVIEWSDAY Material (4) - Interview with Mike Bunn

    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.

    DID Bonus INTERVIEWSDAY Material (4) - Interview with Mike Bunn

  8. Jul 7

    DID Ep 7 - Ghost Town at the Top of the Bay: The Rise and Fall of Blakeley

    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 ParkAdditional 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. ParkerEncyclopedia of AlabamaVoices from 1818ExploreSouthernHistory.comUnitedStatesGhostTowns.comAdditional 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.

    DID Ep 7 - Ghost Town at the Top of the Bay: The Rise and Fall of Blakeley
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About

A long-form history podcast focused on the people, places, and stories that shaped Dauphin Island and the Alabama Gulf Coast.

Information

  • Creator
    Big John Summers
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    18
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Summers Media Enterprises, LLC
  • Show Website
    Dauphin Island Diaries

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