Gulf State Park and Its Storm-Tested Pier
Near Gulf Shores, Alabama
Behind the beachfront hotels spreads a green sanctuary of more than six thousand acres called Gulf State Park. Its roots go back to the Great Depression, when the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of President Franklin Roosevelt's public works programs, came to this coast in the nineteen thirties to build cabins, a casino, and roads. The park was formally established in nineteen thirty nine.
Within its bounds lie three spring fed freshwater lakes, including Lake Shelby, along with pine forests and tea colored streams, all just a short walk from the salt water. The park's crown jewel is its fishing pier, which juts far out over the Gulf. The original pier was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in two thousand four, so the state rebuilt it bigger, a concrete structure stretching more than fifteen hundred feet with thousands of feet of railing to fish from, the longest pier on the Gulf of Mexico.
Storms have battered it again since, and each time it has been repaired and reopened. Nearby stands the Lodge at Gulf State Park, a modern hotel that rose to replace a resort the hurricane had swept away, proof of a coast that keeps rebuilding at the water's edge.
