Dauphin Island Diaries
A long-form history podcast focused on the people, places, and stories that shaped Dauphin Island and the Alabama Gulf Coast.
Episodes
11 episodes
DID Ep 7 - Ghost Town at the Top of the Bay
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...
DID Bonus Material - Interview with Jason Herrmann
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 reso...
DID Ep 6 - The Sentinel at the Mouth of the Bay: The SAD Island Lighthouse
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 episod...
DID Bonus Material: Interview with Ms. Anita Phillips
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 sha...
DID Ep 5 - The Lost Republic
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 R...
DID Bonus Material - Interview with Shari Pope Moon
🎙️ 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 ...
DID Ep 4 - The World Is Your Oyster
Long before tourists crossed the bridge to Dauphin Island…before beach houses lined the west end…and before seafood restaurants turned oysters into a delicacy for visitors…there were people whose entire lives revolved around the waters of Mobil...
DID Ep 3 - Life After the Final Voyage
Artificial reefs are one of the Alabama Gulf Coast’s strangest success stories.What began decades ago with fishermen dropping old cars and scrap into the Gulf evolved into one of the largest artificial reef systems in the world....
DID Ep 2 - Ancient Snowbirds: How We Got the Shell Mounds
The shell mounds of Dauphin Island are among the oldest man-made features on the island—but they are not what they first appear to be.Built over generations by indigenous peoples connected to the Bottle Creek site in the Mobile-Tensaw De...
DID Ep 1 - The Complicated Story of Fort Gaines
On the eastern end of Dauphin Island stands Fort Gaines—a quiet coastal fort with a long and complicated past.Built to guard the entrance to Mobile Bay, Fort Gaines has stood through shifting flags, changing purposes, and one of the most...