Fort Morgan in Gulf Shores Alabama

At the end of our recent trip to the Alabama coast, on our way home, we decided to visit Fort Morgan. The fort is at the western end of Highway 180, 22 miles west of Highway 59. It is actually a part of the city of Gulf Shores, but most people consider it a separate entity because of the distance from Gulf Shores city center. Fort Morgan can also be reached from Dauphin Island by ferry across the Mobile Bay.



Fort Morgan National Historic Landmark is a 500 acre site located at the end of a long narrow peninsula with the Gulf of Mexico to the south and Mobile Bay to the north.



Visiting Fort Morgan is a nice day trip for visitors to the Alabama beaches. There is a small entrance fee to the fort grounds. The entrance to the fort is just past the Fort Morgan ferry dock.

Construction was completed on the Fort in 1834, and it was first garrisoned in March of that same year. It was named for Revolutionary War hero Daniel Morgan.



Fort Morgan was used during four wars — the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II. The fort is most famous for its role in the Battle of Mobile Bay during the Civil War. If you've ever wondered where the saying "Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead" originated, it was at Fort Morgan during Civil War's Battle of Mobile Bay.



Upon entering the bay, the USS Tecumseh was sunk when it hit a minefield, taking ninety-four men down with it. Taking enemy fire from both the Confederate fleet and Fort Morgan, Admiral David Farragut chose to keep moving into the bay through the minefield. The rest of the Union fleet followed the lead ships into the bay and defeated the vastly outnumbered Confederate fleet led by the giant ironclad CSS Tennessee.

There is a small museum on the grounds where many relics from the fort's past are displayed along with period photos. It only takes about a half hour to visit the museum and it is well worth the visit.




For those who would enjoy more frivolous activities with their history lesson, picnicking, fishing, crabbing, and swimming is allowed. In fact, fishing is very good at Fort Morgan and the entrance fee screens out most of the competition. The beach area is rarely crowded.

Lagoon Pass - Gulf Shores Alabama

We spent Friday through Tuesday on the Alabama Coast. The purpose of the visit was to help my parents move from one condo to another. We were able to spend a little time on the beach and a little less fishing, but the trip was a nice change of pace. We lived on the Alabama Coast for eleven years, in five different homes, before we moved back to McCalla last year. It was a nice place to live, but running from hurricanes gets tiresome. Hurricane Ivan put 18 inches of water in our home and Katrina came up to our doorstep.

We lived at Lagoon Pass for a couple years. We traded our condo on the beach for the beach home. Living on Little Lagoon with the Gulf just across the street was nice for awhile. I could decide to go fishing on the spur-of-the-moment and be wading in the Gulf 10 minutes later. But the house was almost imposible to get warm enough in the winter or cool enough in the summer. There was also constant upkeep; beach homes take a beating from the wind, salt air and heat. The there was Hurricane Danny that blew half our roofing off and put two days of rain in our living room and kitchen. It can never be said that living on the beach is dull.





We always saw great blue herons, brown pelicans, and other birds from our back deck. The occasional sea turtle would swim in, and once we watched a pair of river otters play.

Lagoon Pass has changed a lot since we lived there. The seawall has been extended into the Gulf and sand has been addred on both sides. The cement wall where I sat waiting on a redfish to take my bait has been removed, and tons of sand has been added to the beach.







Mullet netting fishermen travel through the pass in small boats to fish the coast. Mullet will not take bait that most fish like. The vast majority are netted from boats such as this one. Fisherman also use cast nets from banks, docks, and seawalls. The seawall at Little Lagoon Pass is very productive during certain times of the year.



Redfish, bluefish, flounder, Spanish mackerel, whiting, speckled trout, white trout and pompaano are some of the species that can be caught here.



Fisherman with oil rig in background. Hundreds of oil rigs dot the Alabama Coast.



Here's a treasure hunter with an underwater metal detector.



This fisherman has caught a big flounder. It is a little early for the flounder to be hitting really good here. As the night's grow colder, they will move from Little Lagoon through the Pass and into the Gulf. During the month of November, thousands will be caught in the Pass.

For more information on Lagoon pass, see my Squidoo Lens:

http://www.squidoo.com/lagoonpass

My Outdoors Blog

I love the outdoors. I grew up in the country. Growing up, I spent most of free time in the woods. My brother and I waded creeks, climbed up and down limestone bluffs, and fished and swimmed in the lakes. In fact, for most of my childhood I lived within walking distance of several lakes, living lakeside a large part of the time. My family did move to the suburbs for three years, but even then we had plenty of green space just across the road - and a huge creek full of all kinds of neat stuff.

I have recently moved back to the place where I grew up, after living eleven years on the Alabama coast. We had a lot of fun there, but I am really enjoying being back home.