Visiting Haunted Shell Mound Park

Shell Mound is haunted by ancient ghosts.   They are ghosts from the Mississippian Period, 1100-1500 AD.  A lonely woman ghost haunts this historic site.  She dances on the mound at night bringing the sound of native music drifting through the hot night air with her.   When I visited Shell Mound Park,  there was no sign of any ghosts.   The only thing that haunted us is the brutal heat were the swarms of mosquitoes that descended on us in plagues.  They came and sucked us dry, sending me scurrying through my haunted exploration and making me somewhat blind to any ghosts that may have been chasing me. 

Shell Mound Park is a small park on the top of Dauphin Island.   For hundreds of years,  American Indians made pilgrimages to this site to eat oysters.   The evidence of this activity crunches beneath your feet as you walk through the park.  The hills that you walk across as you explore the park are made entirely of oyster shells.  If you dig down, you pull up a mixture of shell and soil.  This area is beautiful, if you can see past the sticky heat and mosquitoes.  Huge oaks drip with Spanish moss and hangs down so long it tickles the oyster shells beneath it.  It is easy to imagine a lonely ghost wandering this site.  It is easy to imagine an American Indian girl lingering in this swampy place, waiting to go home.

The Ghost of Shell Mound Park

The Beaches of Southern Alabama are littered with ghosts.  The shifting sands store untold tragedies and histories that collect ghosts like children collect coins.   Dauphin Island is no exception to this rule.  In addition to Fort Gaines, which is notoriously haunted, Dauphin Island is also home to Shell Mound Park.
Shell Mound Park holds old ghosts.

Shell Mound Park is the location of an ancient Indian archaeological site.   The site is from the Mississippian Period and dates back to 1100 AD.  The mounds were built over time.   Archaeologists believe that the Native Americans came to Dauphin Island periodically during the year to collect oysters.   It is believed that the natives came from the Bottle Creek site further North and gathered the oysters.  Oysters were a rare delicacy and worth the long journey to collect.  The mounds built up over centuries as the natives came, feasted upon oysters at this site, and then left their debris behind.  Over the centuries the oyster shells became large mounds.  When the natives stopped their feasting, nature took over and grew on the mounds.  Trees and grass grew on the shelly remains of the Indian's dinning site turning Shell Mound Park into what it is today.

There is an area amongst these mounds, that is devoid of trees.   Nature seems to avoid reclaiming this area and there is a desolation to it.   It is said that this is where the natives buried their dead.   Many locals and visitors to the park say that if you wander this area on a lonely night you can see a native woman standing in the middle of this quiet place, looking out.  Sometimes she can be seen dancing and the sounds of native music can be heard drifting out over the park. 

The Lonely Ghosts of Fort Gains

Everyone is writing about the civil war this week.  It is the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and I thought it would be appropriate to write something related.   Since I'm also planning my summer vacation,  I thought it would fun to write about one of my favorite vacation locations. Dauphin Island has long been one of my favorite haunts. It is a lonely, little island off the coast of Alabama that has beautiful, white beaches and great views of dolphins leaping just off the coast. It has been missed by much of the tourist trade that has made Pensacola and Gulf Shores unbearable for me. It is quiet and lovely.


The island itself has a long history that has shifted with the shifting sands of the island itself. Dauphin Island was initially name massacre island by the French until it was given a more comforting name by colonists. The French colony on Dauphin Island was short lived, however, and was the site of a notorious pirate attack that left the island abandoned.

The island's strategic positioning made it unforgettable, however, and it was taken by the US for the construction of a fort in 1812. The construction of this fort was as doomed as the the original French inhabitants of the island. Due to poor engineering, poor planning, and stupidity the fort was constructed in an area that was quickly flooded and reclaimed by the shifting waters of the gulf. In 1853, a new engineer was brought in and the construction had to begin again. The new engineer was not so dim as the first people to work on the Fort and construction of the new Fort Gaines was completed in 1858.

Fort Gaines was of critical importance in the Civil War and the Confederates used it as a base for blockade running. Fort Gaines was also important in the Battle of Mobile. Union Army commanders, Admiral David Farragut and Major General Gordon Granger, came through the bay amid fourteen ships, with the orders to shut down the fort. The guns in Fort Gaines fired doing damage to the Union Army. Then, Admiral Farragut gave the notorious order, "Damn the torpedoes! Full steam ahead!" The Union army succeeded in its task when Fort Gaines surrendered to avoid hand-to-hand combat. Eighteen-hundred men died in the Battle of Mobile despite the surrender of the fort.

Fort Gaines is one of the most popular haunted sites in the nation. The ghosts of dead soldiers have been captures on film by tourists and paranormal investigators. All types of visitors have reported hearing mysterious footsteps, voices, and seeing ghosts. MTV will even feature it on it's haunted television special. I have been to Dauphin Island and Fort Gaines numerous times with my family and have never witnessed any of this activity. More than anything I have been haunted by the lonely beauty of the island that has been ravaged by history and nature. It remains one of my favorite places and I will face all manner of ghosts to wander the quiet shores of this island.