Baldwin County


Located in south Alabama along the Gulf of Mexico and Bon Secour Bay, Baldwin County, is recognized as one of the premier tourism spots in Alabama. Noted Civil War sites in the county include Fort Morgan and Fort Blakely. Because of Baldwin County's proximity to the Gulf Coast, it was the site of some of the earliest European explorations and settlements in the South. The county is governed by a four-member county commission.

· Founding Date: December 21, 1809
· Area: 1,596 square miles
· Population: 169,162 (2006 Census Bureau estimate)
· Major Waterways: Bon Secour Bay, Tensaw River, Gulf of Mexico
· Major Highways: I-10, I-65, U.S. 31, U.S. 90, U.S. 98
· County Seat: Bay Minette
· Largest City: Fairhope

History 

Bay Minette is the county seat of Baldwin Baldwin County CourthouseBaldwin County was created by an act of the Mississippi Territorial Legislature on December 21, 1809, almost 10 years before Alabama became a state. Carved out of present-day Washington County, Baldwin is the largest county in Alabama. Located along the Gulf of Mexico, the Tensaw River, and Bon Secour Bay, the area was once occupied by people of the Mississippian culture who left large burial and shell mounds that can still be seen at the Bottle Creek archaeological site.

From the mid-sixteenth century until the end of the eighteenth century, the area that would become Baldwin County changed hands among the Spanish, the French, and the British until the land was transferred to the United States. Baldwin County was included as part of the Mississippi Territory in 1787, with the town of Daphne serving as county seat. In 1900, Daphne's courthouse records were stolen by representatives of the rival community of Bay Minette, and the Baldwin County seat of government remains there to this day.

During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Baldwin County was a hub of growing hostility between a faction of the Creek Indians and settlers, culminating in the Fort Mims Massacre in The Mobile Point lighthouse was located near Fort Mobile Point LighthouseAugust 1813, in which more than 250 settlers, rival Creeks, and militia were killed. During the Civil War, the Confederate government extracted Baldwin County's valuable salt deposits located along the Gulf of Mexico. Fort Morgan, completed in 1834, was the site of a fierce battle in August 1864 in which Admiral David Farragut and his Union ships entered Mobile Bay to seal off Confederate blockade runners. The USS Tecumseh, a Union monitor, was sunk by a mine during the fighting in a narrow inlet and still lies just off Fort Morgan. Almost one year later, in April 1865, Blakely, a small fortified village near St. Stephens, was the site of the last land battle of the Civil War, when some 1,500 Union and 400 Confederate soldiers were killed or wounded just days after Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

During the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, Baldwin County attracted Italian, German, Greek, and Eastern European settlers to the area. In November 1894, journalist Ernest Berry Gaston of Des Moines, Iowa, and 28 other settlers founded the utopian community of Fairhope on the cliff above and shoreline of Mobile Bay. In 1907, Marietta Johnson founded the progressive School of Organic Education in Fairhope.

Major Cities and Demographics 

Gulf Shores, situated on the Gulf of Mexico Gulf ShoresAt the time of the 2000 Census Baldwin County recorded a population of 140,415, a 42.9 percent increase from the 1990 Census. According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the 2006 population was 169,162, with 88.4 percent identifying themselves as white, 9.9 percent as African American, and 2.3 percent as Hispanic. The county seat, Bay Minette, had an estimated population of 7,808 in 2005, and the largest city, Fairhope, had a population of about 16,164. According to 2006 Census estimates, other significant population centers include Daphne (16,000), Foley (12,712), Gulf Shores (8,814), Orange Beach (5,519), Robertsdale (4,814), Spanish Fort (5,601), and Loxley (1,555). In 2004, the median household income was $42,227, compared with $37,062 for the state as a whole. Per capita income in 1999 was $20,826, compared with $18,189 for the state.

Economy 

Pulpwood on a dock at Robertsdale, in south-central Pulpwood on the Styx RiverDuring the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Baldwin County's economy consisted largely of agriculture and deerskin trading among the Creeks, settlers, and Europeans. Export houses operating out of Mobile shipped deerskins obtained from the Creeks to Europe and other continents. Land was extremely cheap, and settlers obtained large tracts of fertile land for growing indigo, tobacco, and rice. In addition, the open rangeland made cattle raising highly profitable, and the abundance of timber made turpentine, potash, and tar valuable exports.

Most of the workforce in Baldwin County in 2000 was divided among production and transportation (33.4 percent); management and professional occupations (29.5 percent); and sales and office work (27.5 percent). Services constituted 14.5 percent, whereas construction and extraction and agriculture represented 13.8 percent and 1 percent of the workforce, respectively. Because of the lucrative tourism industry in the county, the level of employment in the rental and leasing industry is more than double the national average. The Baldwin County Board of Education is the largest employer in the county, with 4,000 employees serving 26,900 students in 47 schools.

Geography 

Baldwin County is the largest county in the Baldwin County MapComprising approximately 1,596 square miles, Baldwin County is located in the southernmost part of the state. It lies fully within the Coastal Plain physiographic section. It is bounded to the west by Mobile County, to the northwest by Washington and Clarke counties, to the north by Monroe County, to the northeast by Escambia County, Alabama, and to the east by Escambia County, Florida.

The southern part of the county lies along the Gulf of Mexico, and the Tensaw River runs along the western edge of the county, where it feeds into Bon Secour Bay. Interstate 10, which runs east-west, and Interstate 65, which runs north-south, are Baldwin County's major transportation routes, and U.S 31, 90, and 98 serve as other major transportation arteries.

Events and Places of Interest 

Given its location on the Gulf of Mexico, Baldwin County is a popular tourist destination. Every year, more than one million visitors flock to the white sandy beaches of Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, and Perdido Beach. Gulf State Park, located along the beaches of Gulf Shores, consists of 6,150 acres and two miles of sand beaches. The park has modern and primitive Baldwin County holds a Shrimp Festival every October Shrimp Festivalcamping, cottages, a marina, hiking trails, fishing, picnic areas, and a pavilion. The park also is home to 900-acre Lake Shelby and an 18-hole championship golf course. The Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo in Gulf Shores has been featured by the Animal Planet network in the series The Little Zoo that Could, which documents its struggles to rebuild after being damaged by successive hurricanes.

For more than 50 years, fishermen and residents of Baldwin County have experienced the "jubilee" phenomenon, during which certain aquatic animals, including crab, flounder, and stingrays, migrate to shallow water, making it possible to fish near the water's edge. Every October, Baldwin County hosts its Shrimp Festival, which attracts 200,000 visitors annually and features a variety of shrimp dishes, arts, crafts, and music. The nearby town of Elberta hosts the annual Elberta Sausage Festival, featuring German music, sausage, sauerkraut, and other German foods.

Baldwin County also has many historic sites and districts that attract thousands of visitors. Visitors interested in Civil War history can tour Fort Morgan State Historic Site, which houses some of the original buildings from the historic fort, completed in 1834, and visit the abandoned town of Blakely, the site of the last battle of the Civil War.

Additional Resources 

Comings, Lydia Jane Newcomb. A Brief History of Baldwin County. Fairhope, Ala.: Baldwin County Historical Society, 1928.

Heritage of Baldwin County, Alabama. Clanton, Ala.: Heritage of Publishing Consultants, 2001.

Nuzam, Kay. A History of Baldwin County. Fairhope, Ala.: Page & Palette, 1971.

Patricia Hoskins Morton
Auburn University


Published August 23, 2007
Last updated November 20, 2009