Flooding still a problem centuries later By JANE NICHOLES Register Staff Reporter 02/26/99 Owners of the historic site where Mobile was founded, as well as others concerned with its preservation, found many problems Thursday with a proposal to turn it into a park. City archivist Jay Higginbotham, who chairs the Tricentennial Commission's Old Mobile project, outlined a proposal that the property owners donate 117 acres at Twentyseven Mile Bluff on the Mobile River for a historical park. Reproductions of original buildings could be constructed on 10 to 25 acres, turning the site into a tourist attraction, Higginbotham suggested. The site known as Old Mobile is near Axis, in an industrial area near the soon-to-be constructed IPSCO steel mill. French settlers founded the town as Fort Louis in 1702, and at one time it was the capital of French Louisiana. The French abandoned Fort Louis in 1711, in part because of repeated flooding of the site and bouts of swamp fever among its residents. They headed downriver to the present site of Mobile. The site has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976. Archeologist Greg Waselkov of the University of South Alabama has been excavating the site off and on for a decade. Higginbotham said he's had thousands of inquiries from people seeking information about their ancestors who were part of the founding of Mobile. Families want to hold reunions at Old Mobile during the Tricentennial. A local teacher also said history teachers would love to be able to take regular field trips there. The main owners of the site include Acordis Cellulosis Fibers, formerly Courtaulds; DuPont Agricultural Products Mobile Manufacturing Center; and Alabama Power Co. Among the objections raised by company representatives and others attending a Tricentennial committee meeting on the Old Mobile project were these: Flooding, one of the reasons the original settlers pulled up stakes and left, is still so bad that excavations have to be suspended in certain parts of the year. In the summer, the area is plagued with deer flies and mosquitoes. "I've had (car) windows go completely black with deer flies," said Ben Midgette Jr., senior environmental coordinator for DuPont. The company representatives indicated they were reluctant to bring numerous tourists and school children into an area surrounded by heavy industry. Tourists could disturb or unintentionally interfere with the archaeology work, which the company spokesmen said they were anxious to preserve. The Archaeological Conservancy, a national organization dedicated to preserving historic sites, has been working with DuPont. The trend nationally is not to disturb sites with replica buildings, but rather to put replicas in different locations, said Alan D. Gruber, Southeast regional director for the conservancy. A historical park with artifacts, replicas and re-enactments would damage the integrity of the site, Gruber said. "We would be very much against that." The property owners agreed to review the proposal and return for another meeting in several weeks. -- webpage: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/4943/index.htm Surnames interests: MOORE, HARTLEY, MALONE, LIPSCOMB, CHASTANG, LEWIS, RAWLS, WINBERG, NELSON, BUZBEE