I couldn't let March of 2017 pass without acknowledging the 300th anniversary of THE STORM OF 1717, an event which shaped Dauphin Island's future as certainly as any other event in the island's 318 year recorded history. One year after this storm which closed Pelican Pass trapping three French ships in Pelican Bay, Bienville and his men left Dauphin Island in March of 1718 on a mission to establish a city for the first time on the lower Mississippi River. That city, New Orleans, fulfilled the French dream of establishing the dominance of New France upon the Mississippi River as it had been established earlier on the St. Lawrence River in Canada. Next year New Orleans will celebrate the 300th anniversary of its founding. All of the men who founded New Orleans came from Dauphin Island. Check out Peter J. Hamilton's description of THE STORM OF 1717 from his 1913 book, MOBILE OF THE 5 FLAGS @ http://dauphinislandhistory.blogspot.com