Dauphin Island

Island in the Gulf of Mexico at the southwest entrance to Mobile Bay, in Mobile County, southwest Alabama; area 194 sq km/75 sq mi; population (1990) 824. It is the site of the earliest permanent European settlement (1701) in Alabama, which provided a base for further colonization in Louisiana. Passing through Spanish and British hands later in the 18th century, it was captured by the USA in 1813. Fort Gaines (1822), on the east end of the island, was occupied by the Confederacy from 1861 until the Battle of Mobile Bay in August 1864. Current residential development followed the opening of a bridge from the mainland in 1954.