The History of Bon Secour Village

Long before the earliest adventurers found the shores of Alabama, the Seminole Indians were well established along the coast and on the Bon Secour River.

In 1668, Louis XIV commissioned French Canadian Pierre LeMoyne, to lead an expedition to Mississippi. Jean Baptiste LeMoyne (his younger brother), and Sieur d'Iberville accompanied him. In 1699, they arrived on the Gulf Coast and later established the town of Maubila, on a bluff overlooking the Mobile Bay. This establishment meant that present-day Baldwin County would soon experience visits from the adventurous French. During this period of occupation, LeMoyne, joined by a third brother, de Serigny, built a hunting and fishing lodge at Bon Secour.

In the late 1700s, the British invaded Alabama and reigned until the American Revolution. In December of 1809, after the Florida Purchase, Alabama became part of the United States, then gained statehood in 1818.

Baldwin County, named for Abraham Baldwin, a native of Connecticut, never set foot in Alabama, died two years before the county was created. Baldwin was beloved by early settlers in Georgia, where he was a state legislator, president of the University of Georgia, and helped draft the Constitution of the United States as the signatory for Georgia.