Mobile Bay ( ) is a shallow inlet of the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
, lying within the state of
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Its mouth is formed by the
Fort Morgan Fort Morgan can apply to any one of several places in the United States:
*Fort Morgan (Alabama), a fort at the mouth of Mobile Bay
*Fort Morgan, Alabama, a nearby community
*Fort Morgan (Colorado), a frontier military post located in present-day Fo ...
Peninsula on the eastern side and
Dauphin Island
Dauphin Island is an island town in Mobile County, Alabama, United States, on a barrier island of the same name, in the Gulf of Mexico. It incorporated in 1988. The population was 1,778 at the 2020 census, up from 1,238 at the 2010 census. The t ...
, a
barrier island
Barrier islands are coastal landforms and a type of dune system that are exceptionally flat or lumpy areas of sand that form by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything from ...
on the western side. The
Mobile River and
Tensaw River
The Tensaw River is a river in Baldwin County, Alabama.
The name ''Tensaw'' is derived from the historic indigenous Taensa people.
Overview
It is a distributary of the Mobile River, approximately long. It is formed as a bayou of the Mobile appr ...
empty into the northern end of the bay, making it an
estuary
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...
. Several smaller rivers also empty into the bay:
Dog River Dog River may refer to:
Canada
*Dog River (Ontario), a river in Thunder Bay District, Ontario
* Dog River (Manitoba), a river in Northern Region, Manitoba
* Dog River, Saskatchewan, a fictional setting for the television series ''Corner Gas''
Uni ...
, Deer River, and
Fowl River
Fowl River is a brackish river in Mobile County, Alabama. It originates near the Mobile suburb of Theodore and then splits into the East Fowl River and the West Fowl River. The East Fowl River discharges into Mobile Bay south of Belle Fontaine. ...
on the western side of the bay, and
Fish River on the eastern side. Mobile Bay is the fourth largest estuary in the United States with a discharge of of water per second.
Annually, and often several times during the summer months, the fish and crustaceans will swarm the shallow coastline and shore of the bay. This event, appropriately named a
jubilee
A jubilee is a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term is often now used to denote the celebrations associated with the reign of a monarch after a milestone number of y ...
, draws a large crowd because of the abundance of fresh, easily caught seafood.
Mobile Bay is in area. It is long by a maximum width of .
The deepest areas of the bay are located within the shipping channel, sometimes in excess of deep, but the average depth of the bay is .
History
Long occupied by cultures of indigenous peoples, this area was still under the chiefs of
Mississippian culture at the time of Hernando de Soto's exploration.
The recorded history of Mobile Bay begins about 1500, when Spanish explorers were sailing into the area. On early maps, the bay was named as ''Bahía del Espíritu Santo'' (Bay of the Holy Spirit). The area was explored in more detail in 1516 by
Diego Miruelo and in 1519 by
Alonso Álvarez de Pineda
Alonso Álvarez de Piñeda (; 1494–1520) was a Spanish conquistador and cartographer who was the first to prove the insularity of the Gulf of Mexico by sailing around its coast. In doing so he created the first map to depict what is now Texas an ...
. In 1528,
Pánfilo de Narváez
Pánfilo de Narváez (; 147?–1528) was a Spanish '' conquistador'' and soldier in the Americas. Born in Spain, he first embarked to Jamaica in 1510 as a soldier. He came to participate in the conquest of Cuba and led an expedition to Camagü ...
travelled through what was likely the Mobile Bay area, encountering
Native Americans who fled and burned their towns at the approach of the expedition. This response was a prelude to the journeys of
Hernando de Soto, more than eleven years later.
[Thomason, Michael. ''Mobile : The New History of Alabama's First City'', pages 7-14. Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, 2001. ]
European exploration into the region
Hernando de Soto explored the area of Mobile Bay and beyond in 1540, finding the area inhabited by indigenous
Mississippian culture people. During this expedition his forces destroyed the fortified town of Mauvila, also spelled Maubila, from which the name Mobile was later derived.
It was a town of the paramount
Chief Tuscaloosa
Tuskaloosa (''Tuskalusa'', ''Tastaluca'', ''Tuskaluza'') (died 1540) was a paramount chief of a Mississippian chiefdom in what is now the U.S. state of Alabama. His people were possibly ancestors to the several southern Native American confeder ...
, located in inland Alabama, well to the north of the current site of Mobile. The next large expedition was that of
Tristán de Luna y Arellano
Tristán de Luna y Arellano (1510 – September 16, 1573) was a Spanish explorer and Conquistador of the 16th century.Herbert Ingram Priestley, Tristan de Luna: Conquistador of the Old South: A Study of Spanish Imperial Strategy (1936). http://palm ...
, in his unsuccessful attempt to establish a permanent colony for Spain nearby at
Pensacola
Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ci ...
in 1559.
Although Spain's presence in the area had been sporadic, in 1702
French colonists created a deep-sea port at
Dauphin Island
Dauphin Island is an island town in Mobile County, Alabama, United States, on a barrier island of the same name, in the Gulf of Mexico. It incorporated in 1988. The population was 1,778 at the 2020 census, up from 1,238 at the 2010 census. The t ...
and founded French
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
's capital at
Mobile
Mobile may refer to:
Places
* Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city
* Mobile County, Alabama
* Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S.
* Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels
* Mobile ( ...
, a few miles north of Mobile Bay on the
Mobile River. Following a series of floods, the original settlement of ''Fort Louis de la Mobile'' was relocated in 1711 to the head of Mobile Bay.
Role in wars
During the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
Mobile Bay was used as a major port for
blockade runners bringing in badly needed supplies for the Confederacy. On August 5, 1864, Admiral
David Farragut
David Glasgow Farragut (; also spelled Glascoe; July 5, 1801 – August 14, 1870) was a flag officer of the United States Navy during the American Civil War. He was the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and admiral in the United States Navy. F ...
led a
Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
flotilla through
Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
defenses and sealed off one of the last major Southern ports of the bay in the
Battle of Mobile Bay
The Battle of Mobile Bay of August 5, 1864, was a naval and land engagement of the American Civil War in which a Union fleet commanded by Rear Admiral David G. Farragut, assisted by a contingent of soldiers, attacked a smaller Confederate fle ...
. A number of Civil War-era shipwrecks remain in Mobile Bay, including ''
American Diver
''American Diver'', also known as the ''Pioneer II'', was a prototype submarine built for the Confederate States of America military. It was the first successor to the '' Pioneer''. The ''Diver'' was invented and built by the same consortium that ...
'',
CSS ''Gaines'',
CSS ''Huntsville'',
USS ''Philippi'',
CSS ''Phoenix'',
USS ''Rodolph'',
USS ''Tecumseh'', and
CSS ''Tuscaloosa''.
Mobile's role as a seaport has continued to the present day, though the commodities have changed through time.
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
was the chief commodity in the nineteenth century. During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, Mobile's shipbuilding industry expanded, and the city's population surged as both black and white migrants moved there for work. Growth has been rapid since then.
Natural disasters in the area
The city has endured several devastating hurricanes in its history, the most recent being
Hurricane Frederic
Hurricane Frederic was an intense and damaging tropical cyclone that carved a path of destruction from the Lesser Antilles to Quebec, in particular devastating areas of the United States Gulf Coast. Though only five were killed directly, the US ...
in 1979 and
Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Areas of low elevation, including the downtown business district, have been flooded repeatedly in hurricanes. However, much of the city is at an elevation exceeding above sea level, which is unusually high for the Gulf and Atlantic coasts.
On September 13, 1979,
Hurricane Frederic
Hurricane Frederic was an intense and damaging tropical cyclone that carved a path of destruction from the Lesser Antilles to Quebec, in particular devastating areas of the United States Gulf Coast. Though only five were killed directly, the US ...
entered the bay with winds reaching , destroying the bridge to Dauphin Island. On August 28–29, 2005,
Hurricane Katrina pushed a massive
storm surge into Mobile Bay; it measured high at
Bayou La Batre (Alabama), with higher waves on top, and high at Mobile, at the far northern end of the 31-mile-long Mobile Bay. Thousands of boats, piers, and beach houses were damaged by waves exceeding high, and the
battleship was pushed off her moorings, leaving her listing to port (tilted to the left). Downtown Mobile was flooded several feet, and the south-end towns of
Bayou La Batre and
Bon Secour were severely damaged. Dozens of vessels of various sizes were left stranded inland.
Shoreline towns
The city of
Mobile
Mobile may refer to:
Places
* Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city
* Mobile County, Alabama
* Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S.
* Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels
* Mobile ( ...
is situated at the head of the bay on the western shore. On the
Eastern Shore of the bay are found several small communities, including
Spanish Fort,
Daphne
Daphne (; ; el, Δάφνη, , ), a minor figure in Greek mythology, is a naiad, a variety of female nymph associated with fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of freshwater.
There are several versions of the myth in whi ...
,
Fairhope
Fairhope is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States, located on the eastern shoreline of Mobile Bay. The 2020 Census lists the population of the city as 22,477. Fairhope is a principal city of the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley metropolita ...
,
Point Clear, and
Bon Secour. The town of
Gulf Shores
Gulf Shores is a resort city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 9,741.
Geography
Gulf Shores is located on the Gulf of Mexico at 30°16'4.069" North, 87°42'5.285" West (30.267797, −87.70 ...
lies just outside the bay, on the Fort Morgan peninsula, while the town of
Fort Morgan Fort Morgan can apply to any one of several places in the United States:
*Fort Morgan (Alabama), a fort at the mouth of Mobile Bay
*Fort Morgan, Alabama, a nearby community
*Fort Morgan (Colorado), a frontier military post located in present-day Fo ...
is located directly south of the bay.
The
Middle Bay Lighthouse has been located in the center of the bay since 1885.
The head of the bay is crossed by two major thoroughfares,
Interstate 10, known as the
Jubilee Parkway
The Jubilee Parkway is a pair of parallel concrete viaduct bridges that carry Interstate 10 across Mobile Bay from the George Wallace Tunnel on Blakeley Island in Mobile, Alabama eastbound to Spanish Fort/Daphne, Alabama. The bridges are simila ...
, and
US 90
U.S. Route 90 or U.S. Highway 90 (US 90) is an east–west major United States highway in the Southern United States. Despite the "0" in its route number, US 90 never was a full coast-to-coast route. With the exception of a short-live ...
/
US 98, known as the
Battleship Parkway
Battleship Parkway, commonly referred to locally and in the media as the "Causeway", is a long causeway that carries US 90 and US 98 eastbound across Mobile Bay from the Bankhead Tunnel on Blakeley Island in Mobile, Alabama to Spanish Fort, ...
. These two bridges serve as the primary connections between the city of Mobile and the Eastern Shore.
On warm summer nights, the residents living around Mobile Bay sometimes enjoy the fruits of a mysterious natural phenomenon called a
Jubilee
A jubilee is a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term is often now used to denote the celebrations associated with the reign of a monarch after a milestone number of y ...
, when fish and crabs swarm toward shore and can be easily harvested by people wading in the shallows.
See also
*
Gulf Islands National Seashore
Gulf Islands National Seashore offers recreation opportunities and preserves natural and historic resources along the Gulf of Mexico barrier islands of Florida and Mississippi. The protected regions include mainland areas and parts of seven i ...
- offshore islands, includes nearby states.
*
Gaillard Island
Gaillard Island is an artificially created island located in Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama. It was built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, using sand and mud dredged from the Mobile Bay ship channel and elsewhere. The island is a ...
*
Mobile-Tensaw River Delta
References
External links
Mobile Baykeeper- local
Waterkeeper Alliance
Waterkeeper Alliance is a worldwide network of environmental organizations founded in 1999 in response to a growing movement of organizations with such names as Riverkeeper, Baykeeper and Soundkeeper. By December 2019, the group said it had gro ...
group
*
{{Authority control
Bodies of water of Baldwin County, Alabama
Bodies of water of Mobile County, Alabama
Bays of Alabama
Estuaries of the United States