We spent the day in and around Fort Morgan. Ate a fantastic breakfast at Tacky Jacks 2, where our waitress never let my coffee mug be empty and the biscuits were light and fluffy. Henry wants to go back and eat more of their French toast. It was exactly what we needed to start our day.

The fog made the view cloudy until the sun peaked out, and then we had our first sightings of oil rigs in the bay/gulf which was totally weird and made us thankful that Florida currently has a ban on them in our waters.

For the rest of the morning we alternately swam in the unheated & chilly pool and hung out in the nice & hot hot tub. And around noon we had some special guests arrive to stay with us through Sunday – Oma & Opa!

We had planned to bring our bikes on the Mobile Ferry to Dauphin Island, but thanks to a fog advisory no pedestrians were being admitted on the boat (biking around the entirety of the Mobile Bay to return home was not enticing at all). So we changed our plans and visited Fort Morgan instead.

It was an awesome experience. First, we went inside its small museum full of items used at or worn by soldiers at the fort during its time of operation, which was from 1813 as Fort Bowyer until 1947. The kids liked seeing real cannonballs and rifles, and it was nice to get some background on a place we hadn’t heard about before visiting this area.

Fort Morgan (& its partner, Fort Gaines, on the other side of the entry point to the Mobile Bay) helped protect the area from forces during the War of 1812, the Civil War (although the “invaders” here were the Union troops), World War I, and World War II. I admit to being not knowledgeable about any kind of military history so I did my best to pay this place the respect its owed and learn what I could (while chasing my kids around).

After being turned over to the state of Alabama as a historical park in 1947 (and designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1960), the fort has been open to the public for visits. It currently is on the list of the “nation’s 10 most endangered battle sites” by the Civil War Preservation Trust because of shore erosion and crumbling infrastructure.

The fort itself consisted of a series of tunnels, including one you had to walk through to enter. Coming out of the entry tunnel you find yourself in the dry moat with a small drainage creek; this was where soldiers could easily move from one side of the fort to another under cover of walls on both sides. Once inside the fort, we were fascinated by the tunnels made of bricks, covered with the sediments of time. The boys loved climbing giant-sized stairs to the roof where they could see the beaches and try to escape from their parents (which was kind of horrifying, given that the railings weren’t huge and the roof was sloped with rivets in places.

Because Fort Morgan was utilized in so many American wars, it had a couple of cool features that allowed our imagination to run wild. First up – the Battery Duportail, added in 1898-1899 – which created two 12-inch breech loading rifles that served as “Disappearing Guns” in battle. They would rise up out of the ground, fire their explosives, and then drop back down for reloading. Pretty genius move to protect the soldiers from enemy fire.

For World War II, concerns about U-boats infiltrating and barricading the Mobile Bay caused the construction of a circular concrete gun mount (two were actually built, but only one exists today). This allowed firing on a wider area. The fort was primarily used as an ordnance depot for ships during the war.

Turning back time to the terrible Indian Removal Act of 1830, Fort Morgan had a hand in assisting with the removal of 3,500 Muskogee Creek members from the interior of Alabama as a stopping point on their way to Arkansas and then further west. 93 members of the Muskogee Nation died at Fort Morgan from disease and exposer to its extreme temperatures. As I walked around the fort after learning this, I quickly recognized that the fort was not capable of housing that number of people and was horrified with myself that I’d never deeply thought about the places Native Americans were forced to stay as the government forced them off their land. I would have liked to see more about this at Fort Morgan both in its museum and in the fort itself.

The historic site did a great job depicting the Civil War Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864 through panels utilizing colors (red & blue) to identify boat positions and attacking formations for the fleets, as well as riveting text and artwork. Admiral Farragut led the Union forces to victory, first in the water and then took the fort via a siege. Part of the problem for the Union ships were the torpedos (think land mines, not like torpedos today) blocking entry to the bay. The only ship lost in the battle – The Tecumsah – sank within a minute of being hit. After some time passed likely rendering the torpedoes ineffective, it was reported that Admiral Farragut shouted, “Damn the torpedoes! Full steam ahead!” His action to push the ships through the confusion of battle (& in the hopes that the torpedoes couldn’t explode) decisively turned the battle in favor of the Union forces.

After we finished our fort tour, we played on the beach until the park closed, finishing the last day of 2021 at one of our happy places – the Gulf of Mexico.

P.S. – Since Keith’s parents were with us, Keith & I went out to dinner at a total dive called the Flying Harpoon, where the beer was ice cold, the seafood fried to perfection, and the artwork lining all portions of the walls and ceiling – questionable. We recommend it.