Gulf Shores, from fishing village
to popular coastal vacation
The history of Gulf Shores begins with original settlers, the Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee indigenous tribes that built communities on the shore. These are the tribes that Spanish explorers confronted when they sailed into the upper Gulf Coast.
From the 1550s to the 1700s, as the Spanish and French established settlements on the shore, those natives who survived the diseases brought by these explorers were pushed northward as the Europeans established roots on the shore.
Gulf Shores emerged as a community in 1937 along the newly constructed Alabama portion of a 3,000-mile-long Intracoastal Waterway that stretched from Boston, Massachusetts, to Brownsville, Texas.
Two years later, Gulf State Park opened to the east of the community. The first paved road to the Gulf in Alabama opened in 1949. Gulf Shores was a sleepy town with a few hundred residents and tourists who came for the beach and to fish. Two businesses started in 1956 and that exist yet today anchored the town’s tourism offerings back then. They were the souvenir shop with the entrance encased in a giant concrete shark, Souvenir City, on Gulf Shores Parkway near the end of Highway 59, and The Pink Pony Pub beach bar across Highway 182 in the sand. The Pub was gutted by Hurricane Frederic in 1979, but the owners rebuilt it with concrete pilings. Consequently, it could better survive future hurricanes like Ivan and Dennis and whichever comes next -- despite an ineffective city ordinance that makes it illegal for a hurricane to enter the city limits of Gulf Shores. The Town of Gulf Shores was incorporated in 1959.
They built high-rise condominiums, restaurants, souvenir shops, elaborate resorts, golf courses, and other tourist attractions.
Shore fishing is a popular sport at Gulf Shores' city beach.
The Gulf Shores beach at sunrise with condos in the background.
After Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, Gulf Shores rebuilt its city beach at the end of Highway 59.
After Hurricane Ivan, the City of Gulf Shores reconstructed its city beach at the end of State Highway 59, opening a wide, beautiful public beach anchored by the iconic Pink Pony Pub.
Highway 182, the main road through Gulf Shores, is lined to the east of Highway 59 on both sides with hotels, motels, condos, restaurants, souvenir shops, and beachwear outlets. To the west are mostly nice, two-story rental houses set up for beach vacationers – and more restaurants, souvenir shops, beachwear outlets, motels, hotels, and condos. At the end of Highway 182 is a gated community of expensive houses. It is truly a tourist town. To accommodate tourism and business, the city operates the Jack Edwards National Airport, which can accommodate private planes.
A grey crowned crane at the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo.
On Highway 59, among restaurants and souvenir shops, are Waterville USA and The Track that offers bumper cars, bumper boats, miniature golf, a sky coaster and an arcade. Within the city limits is the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo (“The Little Zoo that Could” seen on Animal Planet).
At the Gulf Shores Marina you can rent boats and kayaks, or jump aboard dolphin cruises and sunset cruises, or contract for a fishing trip.
The city has numerous golf courses. The Factory is an indoor trampoline park. In addition, the city is home to an annual three-day music festival each May, the Hangout Music Festival, which is on the beach at The Hangout bar and restaurant at the intersection of Highway 59 and Highway 182.
One of the more well-known establishments in Gulf Shores is LuLu’s, an entertainment and restaurant complex that includes a major Gulf Shores marina. It is located below the Highway 59 bridge. LuLu’s is owned by Jimmy Buffet’s sister, Lucy. The Buffets grew up in Mobile. There are a many good places to eat. I'ved tried these: For seafood, there's Original Oyster House, The Drunken Shrimp, Mikee's Seafood, Bahama Bob's, and (for fine dining) the little known Sunset Cork Room.
Did You Know?
A crime connection in Gulf Shores
Gulf Shores had a role in a famous FBI undercover operation that busted a major con artist and his associates in the 1970s. In 2017, David Howard published Chasing Phil: The Adventures of Two Undercover Agents with the World's Most Charming Con Man, which details the story of when the FBI first used wires in an undercover operation. One of the two undercover FBI agents was Jack Brennan, who grew up in Mobile, Alabama, and attended Murphy High School. He was working out of the Gary, Indiana, FBI office when he went after Phil Kitzer, a big-time scammer.
Ultimately, the FBI arrested Kitzer, and Kitzer turned state’s witness to avoid prison time. At Brennan’s suggestion, Kitzer was put up in a motel in Gulf Shores under FBI protection. While Kitzer was in Gulf Shores, he helped the FBI build a case against two local drug dealers who had contacted him. Kitzer, turning the tables, went undercover to collect evidence against the drug dealers and wires were used by the FBI to listen in.
Temperatures: Annual average, high, 77 degrees, Low, 57 degrees. High, June through September, 87-90 degrees. Low: December, 40.
Precipitation: Annual average 71 inches. Heaviest rainfall is in, surprisingly, July.
Population: In 2017, the population was 11,800.
How to Get There: By car, take Interstate 10 to Highway 59 south, Exit 54. A good alternative to avoid summer traffic is take the Baldwin and Foley Beach Express, Exit 55, south. By air, you have two commercial choices: Mobile Regional Airport or Pensacola Regional Airport. Private planes can land at Jack Edwards Airport in Gulf Shores.
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By the 1960s the tourism and seafood industry had turned the fishing village into a small town of family-owned grocery stores, restaurants, beach cottages, and motels, like the Sun N Sand, which advertised white-sand beaches and fishing opportunities. During this time, the economy largely involved fishing, shrimping, and oyster harvesting. Tourism was limited but brought life to the small town in the summer. The community started fishing rodeos and in 1971 the National Shrimp Festival to draw visitors in the fall. Then in 1979, the city was devastated by the monster hurricane, Frederic, which washed away most of the beach cottages and damaged other buildings.
After Hurricane Frederic, investors who viewed the now wide-open beaches for their development potential moved into the area. Seaside tourism was over-crowding the East Coast and Florida. Now, developers looked to the Alabama and Florida Panhandle coast, and Gulf Shores and Orange Beach were in their sights. They built high-rise condominiums, restaurants, souvenir shops, elaborate resorts, golf courses, and other tourist attractions. Since 2000, the now City of Gulf Shores’ population of 5,000 can swell to hundreds of thousands counting the day-long or week-long visitors during the summer. Today, Gulf Shores’ economy is based on tourism and by 2010, the permanent population had doubled. The population has grown even more since then.