Today Gulf Shores is host to a magnificent 6,000-acre park, complete with a modern campground, cabins, walking trails, fishing pier, and some of the most beautiful beachfront in the world.

The amenities offered at the campground, along with the fresh and saltwater fishing opportunities, make it a premier destination site for summer vacationers as well as winter snowbird guests.

This modern facility, which whisks visitors away to the natural beauty of the Gulf Coast, has not always been the preeminent site it is today. A little more than 75 years ago, the park was much smaller than it is today; yet it captured the imagination of a small group of local residents and representatives that saw its bright future.

In the summer of 1935, Baldwin County citizens and their public representatives were hastening to make grand plans for the gem in the rough that the park was at the time. Among the local leaders that sought to enhance the park were State Representative A.B. McPhaul and Dr. W.C. Holmes of Foley. At the state level, the state park bureau of the Alabama Commission of Forestry was called on to spearhead the project.

At that time the Gulf State Park contained roughly 1,000 acres. Leaders of the movement to enlarge the park hoped to increase the size of the site to at least three times the original acreage. The hopes of these people, as expressed in a June 1935 Baldwin Times article, was that local land owners would donate property or that someone would provide the funds to purchase the property.

Later that summer, in July, it was announced that the State Park at Gulf Shores would be enlarged. The plan, according to the Alabama Highway Commission, was to immediately expand the site to 2,300 acres and eventually, to 4,000 acres.

According to reports at the time, the first addition to the park was purchased from the Mobile-Gulf Shores Land Company for a sum of $14,000. The improvements to the site, such as roadways, were to be performed by the federal government after the state of Alabama purchased the property. The labor for the site was to come from the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC). The CCC was an initiative of the Franklin D. Roosevelt presidency that provided work relief for people during the height of the Great Depression. From 1933 to 1942, more than 2.5 million men participated in the program, which centered on providing natural resource conservation programs as it placed unemployed men in the work place. 

Elaborate plans were part of the intended enhancements to the site. The construction included roads, tourist cottages, fishing piers into the Gulf and to provide access to the fresh water lake onsite. Other plans included a bird sanctuary and a wild game preserve, as well as the addition of several miles of paved roads leading to the Gulf and to Foley and beyond as a means of accommodating hoped-for tourists. At the time, it was estimated that the total expense contributed by the government toward the variety of improvements would reach one million dollars.  It seems to have been worth every penny.