Dauphin Island Diaries

It's INTERVIEWSDAY!

In this Interviewsday edition (Interview Tuesday) of Dauphin Island Diaries, I sit down with Jason Herrmann of the Alabama Marine Resources Division to explore one of the Gulf Coast's most valuable natural resources... oysters.

Jason serves as Alabama's Shellfish Aquaculture Program Coordinator and has spent years working to conserve, restore, and expand oyster resources in Alabama waters. His expe...

The Sand Island Lighthouse stands three miles south of Dauphin Island at the mouth of Mobile Bay. Today it sits alone on a small ring of granite rip rap, battered by storms, erosion, and time. But it wasn't always that way.

In this episode of Dauphin Island Diaries, we trace the remarkable history of Alabama's most iconic lighthouse, from its beginnings as an iron spindle placed on a shifting sand island to the towering brick sentin...

In this Interviewsday edition of Dauphin Island Diaries, I sit down with longtime Dauphin Island resident Anita Phillips to talk about life on the island, how it has changed over the years, and some of the people and places that have helped shape its unique character.

Anita is a familiar face to many visitors. She has spent years serving as a docent at the Dauphin Island Welcome Center, helping residents and tourists alike learn mor...

For 74 days in 1810, there was a country on the Gulf Coast that most Americans have never heard of.

It had a flag, a government, a governor, and a claim to territory stretching from modern-day Louisiana toward Mobile Bay and the Perdido River. Then, almost as quickly as it appeared, it vanished.

In this episode of Dauphin Island Diaries, we explore the story of the Republic of West Florida, a short-lived nation born from the collisio...

🎙️ FREE INTERVIEW RELEASE 🎙️

This week, we're opening up a conversation that has never been released before.

Back in March, I sat down with Shari Pope Moon in Cadillac Square on Dauphin Island. We weren't in a studio. We weren't in front of a microphone booth. We were sitting at a picnic table under the trees, listening to the sounds of the island around us and talking about family, memory, and the place that has shaped generations...

Long before tourists crossed the bridge to Dauphin Island…before beach houses lined the west end…and before seafood restaurants turned oysters into a delicacy for visitors…there were people whose entire lives revolved around the waters of Mobile Bay.

Shrimpers. Fishermen. Oystermen.

For generations, oysters were part of the rhythm of life along the Alabama Gulf Coast. Families harvested them from the shallow wate...

Artificial reefs are one of the Alabama Gulf Coast’s strangest success stories.

What began decades ago with fishermen dropping old cars and scrap into the Gulf evolved into one of the largest artificial reef systems in the world. Today, thousands of reefs dot the waters off Alabama’s coast—from retired ships and military tanks to specially designed reef pyramids built to create new marine habitat.

In this episode, w...

The shell mounds of Dauphin Island are among the oldest man-made features on the island—but they are not what they first appear to be.

Built over generations by indigenous peoples connected to the Bottle Creek site in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, these mounds are the accumulated remains of seasonal life along the Gulf Coast—layers of oyster shells, tools, and fire debris that reveal how people lived, adapted, and returned to...

On the eastern end of Dauphin Island stands Fort Gaines—a quiet coastal fort with a long and complicated past.

Built to guard the entrance to Mobile Bay, Fort Gaines has stood through shifting flags, changing purposes, and one of the most decisive naval engagements of the Civil War. But its story is not as simple as a single battle or a single moment in time.

In this episode, we explore the origins of the fort, its role in the ...

Welcome to Dauphin Island Diaries, a podcast dedicated to the stories, history, and hidden corners of Alabama’s Gulf Coast.

This introductory episode sets the stage for what’s to come—stories rooted in real places, shaped by the people who lived them, and connected to a landscape that still holds their memory.

From coastal forts and lighthouses to hurricanes, shipwrecks, and the quiet details that most people miss, ...