The following article is part one of a series which will examine our modern relationship with the history of Baldwin County.

No matter how often I look back in time to relate some morsel of the past for modern consumption, I always am astonished at how we, as residents of Baldwin County, are who we are based on who our ancestors were. Thus, providing the evidence, I need to ensure that the understanding of history is important. Our link to the past is undeniable even though many of the people I encounter on a daily basis maintain that they “hate” history or have no interest in it. Lately, I have thought that rather funny—since I understand that they are the person they have come to be based on the experiences of their childhood and the foundation they were given by their parents, who themselves were the recipient of the same type upbringing. In the end, we have an inevitable link with the past, and if we embrace it we can progress much faster by avoiding our predecessors mistakes and capitalizing on our achievements.

A good example is the allure to the Mobile/Tensaw Delta and to the Mobile Bay area today. We make much of the effort to sustain the purity of the region while at the same time taking advantage of its bounty. Our ancestors were not so much different from us in that goal. We can examine that human/nature relationship throughout the history of this region.

Baldwin County, Alabama, though founded in 1809, maintains a heritage steeped in the tradition of numerous cultures, inspired by the earliest Native American settlers and expanded through the diverse customs conveyed by European proponents well before the 19th century. The Spanish, French, and British all left their marks on this rich land, ultimately creating a culture uniquely characteristic of the frontier fusion of the Native American way of life and the advancement of European technology. The allure of the region, then as now, is its unique biodiversity, rich farmland, and the strategic value of the waterways of the delta. Invariably Baldwin County became a destination point for a diverse people in large part because of its rich soil and relative ease of transport found in hundreds of miles of river ways and Mobile Bay. The relationships that grew between these varied people, whether contentious or affable, shaped the future of Baldwin County. And thus, no county in the Southeast can boast a richer heritage and no people can be prouder of how that heritage has been maintained.

Early inhabitation of Baldwin County by Native Americans is evidenced throughout the county with the distribution of shell midden along many of the waterways of the delta, the bay, and along the Gulf. A shell midden is a mound of discarded oyster, mussel or clam shells left in one area over a long period of time. Archaeologists have been able to study these remains to determine the amount of dietary meat in each oyster, the possible food processing methods used, and the length of time that the site was used by the inhabitants.

In addition to the shell midden, the Mississippian mound builders left behind the most noteworthy evidence of their lives in the mounds found throughout Baldwin County. These flat-topped pyramidal mounds, used extensively for temples and houses, are best exemplified on Mound Island at the Bottle Creek mound site. The location, administered by the Alabama Historical Commission, contains eighteen earthen mounds, the highest standing 45 feet tall. According to the South Alabama Center for Archaeological Studies, the Mississippian site (AD 1200 to 1450) is the largest of its kind on the north central Gulf Coast.

Later, as the arrival of Europeans signaled a change in lifestyle for many of the native inhabitants of North America, the Creek Indians came to dominate the area that included Baldwin County. Their dominance was short-lived, however, as whites including the French, English, Spanish, and Americans migrated into the area. Indeed, the Creek presence in Baldwin County was almost always in conjunction with that of the European. The French entered Mobile Bay in 1699 with the Spanish and the British making claims on the region from the 16th through the 19th centuries. American settlers migrated into the area in the late 18th century coming on the heels of the American Revolution.

Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda first explored the Alabama Gulf Coast in 1519, for the Spanish government. He reported details of the coast and of Mobile Bay noting several “Indian villages” along the banks of the Alabama River. Hernando de Soto later passed through the region on his quest for wealth in 1540, yet did very little to effect colonization. Ever determined to establish themselves in North America,

the Spanish returned in 1559, with the expedition commanded by Don Tristan de Luna, which incorporated 500 soldiers and more than 1,000 settlers including women and children. Unfortunately for the Spanish, the attempt was short-lived as the colonists lost many of their supplies in a storm and eventually resorted to surviving on the boiled leather from their armor as their only food source. The colonists escaped the northeast corner of Mobile Bay but left behind the wooden stockade which remains the inspiration for the name of the modern Baldwin County town of Spanish Fort. The Spanish made a triumphal return to Baldwin in 1630, with the settlement headed by the Suarez brothers (Jose, Rosa, and Francisco). The brothers settled in Perdido and gradually extended their claims beyond what is now the Lillian community. The land grants issued by the Spanish government to the Suarez family remain the oldest title to land in Baldwin County.

Upon the arrival of the Spanish in the Gulf Coast region, the native people had united into tribes such as the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Alabamau, and Creek based on the foundation of the Muskhogean language. The first contact between the Spanish explorers and the natives were inconclusive, however. As de Soto’s expedition made its way across the Southeast, the results were violent and catastrophic for the indigenous population. A loathing for the Europeans among the Indians grew from the brutal encounters between de Soto’s men and the local tribes, which made the Indians very apprehensive in any subsequent relationship with Europeans.