Dauphin Island
Bicycling offers adventure to those of us whose bodies and budgets may be pushed just so far. Dauphin Island, Alabama, accessible by ferry, easily traveled by bicycle, fits the bill.
I’ve been visiting this fourteen-mile-long barrier island at the mouth of Mobile Bay for forty years. All but one trip in the last thirty years has been by bicycle and the Fort Morgan ferry. Highway 180 (the Fort Morgan Road) approaches the ferry from the town of Gulf Shores on the east. The most used road onto the island is the causeway from just west of mainland Mobile.
Dauphin Island has been changing since the pre-historic event that formed it. The island has been altered by hurricanes, winter storms, and memory so much that I venture into a new place every time I go. The Holiday Inn where my wife and I and two small children stayed in 1975 was reduced to memory four years later by Hurricane Frederic. The vulnerability of barrier islands to storms was demonstrated dramatically in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina divided the island in half. The division is called, appropriately, The Katrina Cut. Large rocks were placed in the cut in the hope that wind, sand, and time will knit the break.
The most dramatic change in the life of the island is between tourist season and the somnolent time of fall and winter. To islanders, there are two tourist seasons: the end of March through May for snowbirds and the big season of late June through August. I like Dauphin Island best in its down time.
Like a migratory bird practicing for the long haul, it can take me two tries to travel from the beach house we rent off Fort Morgan Road to the ferry landing. The distance is twelve miles; but there are the distractions of marinas, fishing docks, dunes, grocery stores, and the vagaries of ferry travel. High winds mean the ferry stops running for the day.
The ferry runs between two Civil War forts: Fort Morgan on the east side of Mobile Bay and Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island. Gaines covered the western approach to the bay. Running under the guns of the two forts and through floating mines (torpedoes) into Mobile Bay, Union Admiral D.G. Farragut is said to have barked to a reluctant officer, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.”
“Now we say, ‘Damn the mosquitoes, full speed ahead,’ ” said island resident Georgia Mallon, who’s married to a fourth-generation islander. There are four native islanders in their eighties, said Kathryn Carver, who’s part of an effort to record the history of the island in print, audio, and video.
With the wind at my back, it’s about an hour’s bicycle ride to the ferry from our beach house, longer if you’re starting from Gulf Shores, which is about twenty miles from the ferry. Most visitors take the ferry not to save time but to arrive at Dauphin Island by boat. It’s pretty expensive, especially if you buy a round trip ticket. Cars start at $16 (one way) and go up with the number of passengers; one way for an RV with just the driver is $35. It seems like I once walked on for free; but now cyclists, who are considered walk-ons, pay $5 for a round-trip ticket.
One weekday morning in late October, I arrived at the Fort Morgan ferry terminus after a ride in glorious sunshine with a stop for breakfast at Tacky Jacks. The ferry landed, and an Alabama highway department employee made a beeline for me, the lone bicycle rider in a queue of trucks, cars, and RVs.
“Sorry, no walk-ons today,” she said.
High winds were predicted for the afternoon. If the ferry quit running, people in cars who wanted to return to Gulf Shores could take the causeway to Mobile and the interstate to Highway 59 back to town.
“What if I stay on the island tonight?” I asked.
“Sorry, no walk-ons means no walk-ons,” she said.
If you’re on a bicycle, it’s a good idea to check the ferry’s website for changes in schedule. Either arrive early and tour the fort or arrive about the time the ferry’s scheduled to depart for Dauphin Island. The day I was turned away, I took a meandering ride home through the Fort Morgan gun emplacements nestled in scrub and dunes. The woman in the fort’s ticket shack had noticed my U.S. Navy dog tag on my Camelbak zipper pull.
“You’re free,” she smiled. “Thank you for your service.”
The next day, I rolled onto the ferry with other bicyclists and motorists. We landed on Dauphin Island at about 2 pm with five hours to explore the island before the last ferry back to Fort Morgan.
Fire, storms, and gravity have erased most Spanish, French, and early American influences on the island, but shell middens, or mounds, stand as monuments to Indian inhabitants. I always end up at Goat Tree Park and Indian Mound Park. The goat tree recalls a hurricane in the early 1900s when wild goats climbed limbs touching the ground to escape drowning. There are photographs of goats in the trees. I think the goats liked climbing into the big oaks even on fine days.
Between tourist seasons, it’s easy to imagine Dauphin Island under hurricane evacuation order. Most shops close at early afternoon, including the few places where you can get a cup of coffee or a meal. I opted for convenience store coffee and an ice cream sandwich. The clerk seemed happy to have a customer.
I’d been looking for a postcard or something to remember my day on the island. I settled for a gasoline customer’s abandoned receipt that waved from the pump like a pennant. The date and “Dauphin Island” were printed on the strip of paper. I slipped the souvenir into my wallet, checked my watch, and set off for the ferry landing.
In the summer, the island’s resident population of about thirteen hundred swells with house renters, boaters, cyclists, and other day tourists. There are plenty of places to eat and drink and shops to visit; but there is traffic, heat, and humidity, too. If I have to make do with an ice cream sandwich during an off-season ride, I don’t mind.
You won’t get a good feeling for the place until you’ve been a few times or made a long stay. Go in the quiet of winter and fall, the newness of spring, or the bustle of summer. Rent a beach house, fish, or roam between the ferry’s arrival and departure. Go by car if time’s a factor. Go on a bicycle and you’ll feel Dauphin Island in your legs at the end of the day and in the wind in your face on the ferry ride home.
Dauphin Island Details
Some of what you read on the Internet about this fourteen-mile-long barrier island at the mouth of Mobile Bay is fanciful. Goats climbed oak trees to keep from drowning in the hurricane of 1906, not to escape alligators—though there are alligators on the island.
There are some old fig trees on Dauphin Island. The origin of the trees makes good coffee shop conversation. You’ll read in some places that the Spanish brought them. Fourth generation Darrell Mallon’s grandmother had some of the venerable fig trees in her yard. Mallon doesn’t know where his grandmother got the fig trees.
Visit Island Heritage and Art Gallery to see vintage photographs, artifacts, and memorabilia. 1008 Alabama Avenue behind Town Hall. (251) 861-3300. Hours: Thursday through Saturday, 10 am–4 pm; Sunday, 12:30 pm–4:30 pm.
Spanish explorer Alonzo Pineda was the first documented European to visit the island in 1519. Native Americans, who left behind shell middens, visited and later occupied the island as long ago as two thousand years.
Fleur de lis symbols on the Dauphin Island crest represent French occupation from 1699 to 1764 while Spanish galleons recall Spain’s control from 1781 to 1813. The French are responsible for the island’s first name and some of the first misinformation about Dauphin Island: the French called it “Massacre Island” because they mistook bones in a burial place for the site of a mass murder.
Dauphin Island is home to about thirteen hundred year-round residents. The island’s elementary school has received national recognition for excellence. Middle schoolers and high school students go to schools on the mainland.
The island is first landfall for many birds migrating north from South America. There are bird sanctuaries on the island. The main one is the 164-acre Audubon Bird Sanctuary, part of which is reached easily by boardwalk and is advertised as wheelchair-accessible.
The island is home to the Marine Environmental Sciences Consortium. The Estuarium, a fresh and saltwater aquarium, is situated near the ferry landing.
For more info: dauphinislandhistory.org.