When we went down into the courtyard, a daschund took great exception to our being there and barked and growled from the end of the tunnel



to the Bastion Magazine.


In spite of him, we visited the Bakery



and the Latrine (a ten seater flushed twice a day by the tide)


and then went to the Blacksmith Shop.

Here there was a actual blacksmith making things our of iron and explaining the process as he went along. The dog was his. He said that they'd gotten the dog as a puppy and Hurricane Ivan had come along when he was only a few weeks old. After the hurricane the fort was closed while the volunteers worked to restore it and he wasn't accustomed to having people he didn't know be on site.


After we finished the tour, I asked the entrance attendant whether this was a federal or state site. He said neither, which was why this fort was in so much better shape than Fort Morgan. Because everything here was ship-shape. Apparently the US sold the fort to Mobile in 1926, and Mobile then gave it to the Alabama Department of Conservation which then deeded it to the Dauphin Island Park and Beach Board.

The guy there told us that the oversight of Fort Morgan was under a guy who was a friend of someone in power and was paid an enormous salary and given a house in Gulf Shores. So now there was no money left in the budget to maintain the fort. He said that the state board in charge was considering selling or giving the fort to Baldwin County or to the city of Mobile or possibly the US Park Service.