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Dauphin Island is a shapeshifter.

Barrier islands may appear permanent on a map, but they are constantly being rebuilt by waves, currents, wind, storms, and the movement of sand. Along the Mississippi–Alabama coast, the eastern ends of islands tend to retreat while their western ends grow—allowing the islands themselves to migrate westward over time.

That movement helps explain why the Sand Island Lighthouse no longer has an island, why Fort Gaines remains threatened by erosion, why the old Dauphin Island fishing pier is now landlocked, and how Petit Bois Island became separated from Dauphin Island and gradually moved into Mississippi waters.

Storms can accelerate those processes dramatically. Hurricane Ivan opened a breach across Dauphin Island’s West End in 2004, and Hurricane Katrina widened it into the mile-wide Katrina Cut. That breach might eventually have separated the West End from Dauphin Island permanently, but it was closed through human intervention following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

This Season One finale explores an island that survives by changing—and the complicated choices people face when roads, homes, historic landmarks, fisheries, and entire communities are built upon moving ground.

Dauphin Island is not the same island seen by Bienville, the builders of Fort Gaines, or even residents who experienced Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina. Its familiar outline is only a temporary arrangement.

The shapeshifter never stops shifting.

🎙️ Credits

• Hosted by: Big John Summers
• Written and produced by: Big John Summers
• Produced by: Summers Media Enterprises
• Music by: Big John Summers

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john.summers@summersmediaenterprises.com

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Dauphin Island Diaries will be taking a brief break from regular episodes during October. .I’ll also have something short for you here in the feed on Tuesday, October 6 and then DID returns with a full-length narrative episode on Tuesday, November 3.

When *Dauphin Island Diaries* returns on November 3, we’ll be moving to a new release schedule. Full-length narrative episodes will arrive on the first Tuesday of every month, and whenever there's a fifth Tuesday, it will be Interviewsday.

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