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Mobile (pronunciation) is a city located in Mobile County, Alabama, US, along the northwest shores of Mobile Bay. As of the 2005 US Census estimate, the city had a population of 191,544.[1] It is the principal city of the Mobile metropolitan statistical area (MSA), which had a population of approximately 401,427 and a population of 564,013 in the combined statistical area in 2005.[1] Mobile is the third most populous city in the State of Alabama and the principal city of the second most populous metropolitan area of the state. The city's name is derived from the presence of the Mobile (Mauvile or Maubila) Indians in the area at the time of founding. (See Mobilian.) The city is the county seat of Mobile County. Mobile is the original home of Mardi Gras, a tradition that started in 1703, and is the second largest celebration in the United States. Mobile is the only saltwater port in Alabama. Beginning as the first capital of French colonial Louisiana in 1702, during the past 300 years, Mobile has officially flown six flags, including France, Britain, Spain, the Republic of Alabama (1861), the Confederacy, and the United States (see History below). History
The settlement, then called by the French name "Fort Louis de la Mobile", was first established in 1702, at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff on the Mobile River, as the first capital of the French colony of Louisiana. Following a series of floods, the town was relocated downriver to its present location near the head of Mobile Bay in 1711, with another wooden Fort Louis. The capital of Louisiana was moved to Biloxi in 1720 and to New Orleans in 1723,[2] and Mobile was relegated to the role of frontier town and trading post. In 1723, construction of a new brick fort with a stone foundation began, renamed as Fort Condé in honor of King Louis XIV’s brother.[2] In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the French and Indian War. The treaty ceded Mobile to Great Britain and under British rule the colony flourished. The British renamed the city Fort Charlotte, after the English Queen, and reenergized the port. Major exports included timber, naval stores, indigo, hides, rice, pecans and cattle. The immediate British enforcement of race codes threw the denizens of the French-derived culture into chaos. The French Creole world was noted for its laissez-faire attitude to racial matters and the stringent English codes chased some of Mobile's Creole residents westward into Louisiana. The Spanish captured the port town in 1780 during the American Revolutionary War. The Spanish held Mobile until 1813 when, it was captured by the American General Wilkinson. By then it was the second largest seaport on the Gulf Coast. The Cotton Boom of the early 19th century brought an explosion of commerce to what had been a sleepy frontier town. By the 1850s, Mobile was one of the 4 busiest ports in the US. The wealth created by this trade brought the city to a cultural high point. Mobile became known throughout the country and the world. In another note of differentiation between the somewhat cosmopolitan port and the hinterlands of predominantly Protestant Alabama, Mobile was declared a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in this same period. What would become known as McGill-Toolen High School was also established during this time. In 1830, Bishop Michael Portier founded Spring Hill College, one of the oldest Catholic schools in the country. Control of the college was assumed by the Jesuit Order in 1847.
In 1860, Clotilde, the last known ship to arrive in the Americas with a cargo of slaves, was abandoned by its captain near Mobile. A number of the slaves escaped and formed their own community on the banks of the Mobile River, which became known as Africatown. The inhabitants of this community retained their African customs and language well into the 20th century. Mobile grew substantially in the period leading up to the American Civil War, when the Confederates heavily fortified it. Union naval forces established a blockade under the command of Admiral David Farragut. The Confederates countered by constructing blockade-runners: fast, shallow-draft, low-slung ships that could either out-run or evade the blockaders, maintaining a trickle of trade in and out of Mobile. Also, the Hunley, the first submarine to sink an enemy vessel in combat, was built and tested in Mobile. In August, 1864 Farragut's ships fought their way past the two forts (Gaines and Morgan) guarding the mouth of Mobile Bay and defeated a small force of wooden Confederate gunboats and the ironclad CSS Tennessee, in the famous Battle of Mobile Bay. It is here that Farragut is alleged to have uttered his famous "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" quote. The city of Mobile later surrendered to the Union army in order to avoid destruction. Ironically, on May 25, 1865, weeks after Jefferson Davis had dissolved the Confederacy, an ammunition depot explosion -- called the great Mobile magazine explosion -- killed some 300 people and destroyed a significant portion of the city. After the war, the harbor was substantially improved and deepened, and shipbuilding became a notable industry. However, the city languished as a result of Reconstruction and the general economic decline of the South.
During the war, the phenomenal influx of workers created a huge housing shortage. Citizens rented out extra rooms and also converted porches, garages and even chicken coops into rentals. Several federal housing projects were quickly built to house the new maritime and Air Force workers. Several of these are still to be found, notably the community of Birdville. "Thomas James Place" was the proper name for Birdville which was built just outside of Brookley Air Force base to provide relief for the housing shortage. The development consisted of a series of interwoven curving concrete streets named after various birds, hence the nickname Birdville. By 1956, Mobile's square mileage had tripled to accommodate the growth. Brookley's closure in the mid-1960s sent economic tremors through the area which took many years to absorb. Also, in the post-war period, the pulp and paper industry became a major industry in Mobile. Scott Paper Company and International Paper combined to have one of the area's largest workforces. However, the demise of these industries within the last decade also hurt the local economy. On the other hand, during the last 15 years, the chemical, oil and gas, tourism, maritime and aerospace industries have expanded significantly and provided a much needed economic boost. In 1964, the University of South Alabama opened its doors and its tremendous impact on the community and economy was deeply felt in a variety of sectors. The university, the largest employer in the area, operates several hospitals and has a noted medical school. Mobile's seafood industry rose to a position of note for a while, with Mobile Bay oysters acclaimed far and wide, but this waned almost to the point of extinction in the last quarter of the 20th century. A few shrimpers still hang on in the South Mobile County fishing village of Bayou La Batre, immortalized in the book and film Forrest Gump, but their future appears uncertain. Four members of the Baseball Hall of Fame were born in Mobile: Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey, Satchel Paige and Ozzie Smith. A fifth Hall-of-Famer, Billy Williams, was born in the suburban community of Whistler. Notable yearly activities that take place in Mobile include the Senior Bowl, Mardi Gras (the oldest in the country), the GMAC Bowl, and the Azalea Trail Run. In addition, the Mobile BayBears baseball team play in the Double A Southern League. The eastern shore of Mobile Bay periodically experiences an unusual phenomenon called a Jubilee. A jubilee, which usually takes place in the wee hours of warm summer nights, describes a massive upsurge of sea life from the bottom of the bay. This phenomenon has also been observed in a similar bay in Japan and is believed to be caused by low oxygen levels in the water. This upsurge to the surface usually consists of crabs, shrimp, flounder and other sea delicacies. Needless to say, a jubilee, when first realized, is quickly spread by word of mouth along the coast, providing an impromptu fishing party in the middle of the night. Jubilee Parkway (the I-10 bridge across Mobile Bay) is named after this phenomenon. On 10 November 1993 the city formally twinned with the Japanese city of Ichihara, Chiba prefecture. Hurricane Frederic, which struck the area on September 12, 1979, caused severe damage in Mobile. Many residents were without power, water, telephone and basic necessities for weeks. Fortunately, only one death was recorded. The economic boom that followed Frederic, in addition to the economic growth of the 1980s, vastly improved Mobile's overall economic picture. Mobile and its suburbs suffered considerable damage when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. Although losing electric power for weeks, most of the city survived relatively intact compared to eastern New Orleans, coastal Louisiana, and coastal Mississippi, but the high winds and flooding destroyed homes in coastal areas and damaged some parts of the downtown area, and at least two people died in hurricane-related car accidents. Research Tips
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