Mary C. Eddins. Department of Earth Sciences, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL 36688. Email:ceddins@excite.com.

This report assesses the experiences of five lifelong residents of the Dog River watershed, and how they have perceived the changes in the area throughout their lives. Their experiences, along with photographs, illustrate the environmental impact of urbanization on the watershed. The images obtained through the University of South Alabama Archives and through the personal collections of the residents that I have communicated with provide a visual look at the watershed over time.

Using the resources of Dog River Clearwater Revival, I obtained names of residents in the Dog River watershed to interview. I chose three males and two females to talk with, ranging in age from seventy-six to eighty-seven years old in order to gain insight as to what the area was like during the early years of its urbanization and how the urbanization has effected the area over the past ninety years. By doing an oral history, I can present a more detailed presentation of what has transpired within the Dog River watershed. I hope this paper will demonstrate the ill effects of urbanization on this type of watershed.

Keyword: oral history, watershed, Alabama
 

Introduction

The Dog River watershed covers more than half of the present day Mobile, Alabama. It also extends west and south of the city limits. The mouth of Dog River is located along the western shore of Mobile Bay; it is one of the three largest local tributaries to the Bay. It is technically not a river but an estuary. It is situated on a southward sloping plain, and the watershed's highest elevation is just over 200 feet above sea level. The mouth of the river is relatively narrow, opening 300 to 350 feet. Past the entrance, this river expands in places to five times in width as it twists and turns while heading north into Mobile, Alabama (Waselkov and Gums, 2000). It is a typical Gulf Coast estuary having one low and one high tide a day, moderate seasonal changes, and waters which gradually turn brackish as they draw closer to the mouth of the river. Salt water enters the river through Mobile Bay, and the various natural springs from Cottage Hill and Spring Hill feed fresh water into the river (Fullton, 1984). The average depth of Dog River is 4.5 feet. There are several tributaries along the expanse of the river, which help the average volume of water flow reach 6,417 acre-feet annually (Lau, Stowe, Fuller, 1978).

When Europeans first settled in the Dog River area, they only built summer homes. The first residents of this area were the Rochon brothers. They bought a brick kiln from a man named Olivier, and made their money by making bricks (Waselkov and Gums, 2000). It was not until the last one hundred years that residents lived by the river yearlong.

There are no extensive histories on the Dog River area. I chose to conduct an oral history of five of the residents who live along this river. Oral history projects are important because the reader is able to see what the interviewee saw. The interviewee is able to take the reader back to when the river was a clean place and recreation on the river was safe for everyone (Figs. 1-13 below). The reader can see the amount of change that has occurred over one person’s lifetime. This should encourage them to educate others about the importance of keeping our rivers and waterways clean. Another reason that oral histories are important is because they bring the community together. By this, it is meant to show common background and heritage. The community gains a better understanding about what it means for them to still be living there on the river. People need to know that there are others in the community who notice the problems at hand and are willing to restore the watershed to its natural qualities. It also gives them a better understanding as to how the river and its watershed came to be in such a damaged state.

Click on image for larger version.

Figure1. Alba Club, 1890	Figure 2. Alba Club, 1905
Figure 3. Alba Club, 1925	Figure 4. Alba Club, 2001
Figure 5. Grandview Park, 1935	Figure 6. Grandview Park, 2001
Figure 7. Grandview Park, 1940	Figure 8. Grandview park, 2001
Figure 9. Gulf Hunting and Fishing Club, 1890	Figure 10. Gulf Hunting and Fishing Club, 1950
Figure 11. Gulf Hunting and Fishing Club, 2001	Figure 12. Gulf Hunting and Fishing Club, 2001
Figure 13. Gulf Hunting and Fishing Club, 1890	All photos courtesy of University of South Alabama Archives. If you know someone who has memories and/or old pictures to share, please contact Mimi Fearn. Another student will continue this project soon.

Methods

I chose to research the Dog River watershed by gathering oral histories of some of the residents who have lived in the area for a long period of time. By working with Dog River Clearwater Revival, I was able to gather a list of names and phone numbers of older citizens in the area. I randomly selected five residents: Mrs. Dees, 76 years old; James Fullton, 86 years old, and his wife, Imogen Fullton (Fig.14); Edwin Farnell, 85 years old (Fig.16), and Jack Griffith, 89 years old (Fig.17). I contacted each of them individually by phone, telling them who I was, what I was doing, and then asked them to participate in my project. All five were eager to join me in my quest to gather information on Dog River. My classmates helped me compile a list of questions appropriate for my research. After typing up the questions, I hand delivered them to each person. This gave the residents the opportunity to meet me, and to look over the questions so they would be able to answer them without any difficulties. A week later I contacted everyone by phone to set up an appointment to conduct the oral history. When I arrived at the various houses, the interviewees took me on a quick tour of their residence and offered me a drink of either coffee or sweet tea. We then found a comfortable place to conduct the interview, sat down, and talked.

Each interview, except for Jack Griffith, lasted about thirty minutes. Mr. Griffith’s interview lasted an hour and a half. These interviews were recorded on audiotape. They were later transcribed, using the WordPerfect program on Windows 95 (M.C. stands for Mary C. Eddins). I asked all of them to sign a release form in order to let the public have access to their histories. No one had a problem signing this form. The recorded tapes and their information transcribed on disk will be stored at the University of South Alabama Archives. They are available for public in-house use only.

Along with the oral histories, I searched the Archives for older pictures of life on Dog River. There were seven pictures that I chose to use (See Figs. 1-13 above). Using these pictures, Justin Duke (photographer for USA Archives) and I went out to take photographs again, at the same angle where they were originally shot years ago. Viewing these pictures side-by-side one can see the drastic changes along Dog River.
 

Results

Population density was the most drastic change that these residents experienced. During Edwin Farnell’s interview he relates to us about the influx of people to the area.

M.C.: What’s the most significant difference you’ve noticed since you’ve lived around this area? Population?

Farnell: Too many people. [laughter]

Farnell: People, people, people.

M.C.: So, when your granddad built this house, was that the only house on this road? ( Navco Road)

Farnell: At that time, yeah.

M.C.: Now, there’s at least a house every acre or two acres?

Farnell: More than that probably. Of course, this is all subdivisions now.

M.C.: Yeah.

Forest: In other words, the 110 acres and the 92 now are subdivisions and stuff. Vermillion Place, Farnell Place, Gulf Manor. All that was the original 110 and 92 (Farnell, 2001).

Jack Griffith talks about the population increase after the war.

F.F.: You don’t remember who owned that old house, do you?

J.G.: No, George Goodwin was the last man that owned it that, he was my friend, and he owned the Mike Club down the way here at, he was the last one that I know that lived there. Then the war come along and they built all those houses in there and that’s when they developed that part of the country (Griffith, 2001).

Mr. Fullton talks about population increase along the river.

M.C.: What’s the most, what’s the biggest difference that you’ve noticed in this area since you moved here?

Mr. Fullton: Well, most people buy lots just like we did and built homes on them and through the years they kept building larger homes. At first they were just a few hundred thousand dollars. But most of them up there now are around million dollar homes. There’s about four or five right down this road that are in the million-dollar class (Fullton, 2001).

Edwin Farnell talks about land prices.

Farnell: My dad, you know this area here, my mother’s daddy, my grandfather, bought a piece of property from Mr. LeGere, ten acres, and he paid $100 an acre for it, way back, it was about 19...had to be around 1912, 13, somewheres in there. And, bought the ten acres from Mr. LeGere for $100 an acre and people thought he was crazy. They said, "Mr Lon (?), you’re crazy to pay that kind of price for that property." He said, "Well, I may not live to see it but one of these days you won’t be able to buy a foot of property of Dog River." And, its come to that just about (Farnell, 2001).

Jack Griffith talks about the water quality.

J.G.: Oh I wouldn’t put my foot in Dog River now. Back in those days it was nice, clean, we swimmed down, just below Navco (Road) where the old mill was there, there was a big bluff across the river. We’d go down there to the bluff on our side and swim the river, that was a swimming hole (Griffith, 2001).

Mrs. Dees talks about the water quality.

Mrs. Dees: Well, now, when we first moved down here, um, it was more or less polluted, more polluted than it is now. And there was a doctor next door, uh, a doctor on down, and then my son was friends with Dr. Bender, Dr. Wort (?). He ran around with all those boys. And so, um, I didn’t want my children to swim and the doctors said, "oh, let them swim, they’ll get an immunity to all that stuff in there." And so they did. Other, I think Monty (?) had ear problems a lot, but, um...

Mr. Dees: Well he stayed in all day.

Mrs. Dees: Well yeah.

Mr. Dees: I think part of that then was that when they had that processing plant up there, used to be a sewage processing plant.

Mrs. Dees: And you’d get a lot of foam and stuff. I know one time I saw a frog and he had, it was so much stuff, he was stuck on this piece of wood, and that was the saddest thing. And you had to try to get him unstuck from…

Mr. Dees: And the fish would have cancers.

Mrs. Dees: Yeah. thing. And you had to try to get him unstuck from......

Mr. Dees: And the fish would have cancers.

Mrs. Dees: Yeah.

F.F.: Skin cancers?

Mr. Dees: Normally that’s caused from hot weather, isn’t it, and other pollution? I’d catch them from all over the country and they got those sores. Its when the weather gets real hot. You know how we got up to a hundred degrees (Dees, 2001)..

Mr. Farnell talks about fishing.

Farnell: You had to stay busy, you had to work. But, the other thing, we could go fish, down there where LeGere’s is, I been down there on that point and sit and fish mullet.

M.C.: Mullet.

Farnell: Mullet.

M.C.: How big were they?

Farnell: Oh, great big ones back in those days. It wasn’t fished heavy like it is now. And the fish could grow. But, take some chicken pellets, you know, what you feed chickens with, pellets, and dump some out and the fish would come and you could just fish. Right down there on the point ( Farnell, 2001).

Mr. Fullton talks about fishing.

M.C.: Has the fishing changed any since you first moved here?

Mr. Fullton: Yeah, a whole lot. When we first moved here porpoise used to come in the river and swim all up under our wharf. You could almost touch them they were so friendly.

Mrs. Fullton: Real [glad] to see them coming out, you know coming (unintelligible).

Mr. Fulton: You don’t see them like that anymore. There were a lot of alligators in the river way back. We’d see them all around the banks and in the water. But they got all scarce.....maybe just a few (Fullton, 2001).

Mrs. Fullton talks about the hurricanes.

M.C.: Uh, have you lived here during any of the hurricanes, the tornadoes, the great floods?

Mrs. Fullton: Well, we’ve lived in Mobile but....my husband wants to stay down here during the storm but I don’t want to because a tree might fall in the driveway and we couldn’t get out. But, we have, uh, we haven’t stayed, we’ve stayed in town when Frederic came. We stayed at my son’s, he was living out at, uh, he was living out when, uh, by the Municipal Park.

M.C.: Yeah.

Mrs. Fulton: In a subdivision out there. So, we spent the night there. And when we came back, we had to park the car on Staples Road and climb over tree trunks, they were all bent like this over the roads. But, the house wasn’t hurt, uh, and my son, who is so brave and would go frog gigging in the night and all through the swamps, uh, during the Camille hurricane that was down, that hit the Gulf Coast, he went and got in bed with his 88 year old grandmother, who was spending a few days with us.[laughter]

Mrs. Fulton: He’s so brave.

M.C.: Oh my goodness. So, was there any like structural damage to the house?

Mrs. Fulton: Uh, no, a limb blew in, broke one of the panes of glass but, uh, it, we didn’t have any real damage. I’ve got a picture of the damages that were done. I kept a scrapbook. I was looking at it the other day.
 

M.C.: Okay.

Mrs. Fulton: We were without electricity and the only way we got it was I saw two wires on the ground and I picked them up and twisted it together (Fullton, 2001).
 

Discussion and Conclusion

I hope this project is one that will alert Mobile’s citizens to the drastic changes that have occurred along Dog River. I have been working with the Dog River Clearwater Revival on this project. They are an "unincorporated association of property owners, recreational users, commercial interests and other stakeholders concerned with environmental issues affecting water quality in Dog River" (DRCR pamphlet). By involving my project with this organization, they will be able to continue using my techniques and the information that I have gathered to further educate the citizens of the Dog River watershed. Through the use of primary sources and a time line of photographs, readers will understand the changes that have occurred in the Dog River watershed in a more personal way.

"Once only a summer place, the river is now a part of the city of Mobile" (Fullton, 1984).
 

References:

Dees, Mrs. "Oral History." March 2001.

Fullton, Imogen Inge. "Mobile’s Dog River: A Peaceful Paradise that’s Rich in History." December 13, 1984.

Fullton, Imogen Inge. "Suburban People." Mobile Press Register, December 1984.

Fullton, Imogen Inge. "Oral History." March 2001.

Fullton, James. "Oral History." March 2001.

Griffith, Jack. "Oral History." March 2001.

Stephen Lau, Noel R. Stowe, and Richard S. Fuller, Jr. Archaeological Investigations on Dog River: An Experiment in Public Archaeology. Mobile, Alabama: 1978.

Waselkov, Gregory A. and Gums, Bonnie L. Plantation Archaeology at Riviere Aux Chiens, ca. 1725 – 1848. Mobile, Alabama: 2000.