The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-11
ny WILL. IT. STEPHAN.

| ton of Baldwin County. fiFe miies
 away to the west is that other old his-
 toric fort of Mobile Bay, Gaines Be
 tween the two runs the channel over the outer bar between Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The little crooked | finger of land is very narrow. In places it is barely half mile between
 the Gulf and the w9ters of the bay on the inside.
 | Inside that little bent finger is lo- cated Navy Cove, which for immemo-
 rial years has held place once every l map of Mobile Bay. In the olden days
 when the buccaneers roamed the Gulf | of Mexico as Robin Hood and his men
 roamc6 Sherwood Forest, Navy Cove
 was their refuge and tpeir rest. In the strenuous life they lead, the land locked harbor was as an inn, to the | wayfarer on a perilous journey.
 From successful sorties and forays | on the Gulf the buccaneers steered their light sailing crafts over the ba. and around the miniature peninsula to l the quiet and restful waters of Navy Cove where they could divide their booty, gamble for each others shares
 and drink themselves into insensibil- ity.
 l Spain held dominion over the Cove | and the land whereabouts in thosa days | even as in recent years Spain held do- | minion over the island of Cuba. To T loyal and devoted subject of the Span- ish crown, Francis Suares by name, this land was formally granted for unknown 1 services to his Government. It was l given the Spaniard, Suares, that he | might make of 1t stock range.
 The Land Locked Cove.
 In the years that came afterwards | men dreamed dreams and saw vi5i'rs 1 wherein this little cove was to be q
 harbor in which the navies of the world were to drop anchor and from which they were to carry and to which they | were to bring cargoes of the commerce | of the world. Ahead of them these men saw visions of the white winged
 sailing vessels sweeping around the point or the black funneied steamers | with their trains of smoke bearing in from the Gulf waters. And on these
 lonesome sand dunes they saw wharves.
 warehouses, stores, offices and homes of a busy and a contented people. In
 the fulillment of that dream, if they could make it come to pass. they saw riches ou riches piled up as the reward
 of their foresight.
 It seemed so simple a thing to do, to build harbor where the advantages
 were, as they thought. so many. The | Gulf was only few hundred yards
 away. A barrier of sandy land shut out its turbulent waters when the wind
 was high. The land-locked cove was
 and is sheltered harbor where the wa | ter is like a mill pond. From Fort | Morgan to the wharves of the city of
 Mobile is very nearly forty miles. A
 vessel that would be making this trip to
 and from the bar to the Mobile wharves
 would travel eighty miles, The dream CTS fancied the time when there would
 be no absolute necessity for making this trip for vessels which were in a 1 hurry. They fancied the time when a | railroad would run down through Bald
 win County to the newly built piers l and wharves of Navy Cove, wherefves-
 sells could come in and touch thes very
 steel rails of the road. They pictured | the time when the vessels that did the Gulf traffic could run in to Nnd-locked
 Navy Cove and pull up against the very | freight cars that would bring them the | commerce of the North American con- | tinent.
 fair dream 1t was, but the older | dreamers were never destined to see
 its fulfillment. They lahored year after year to make 1t come true. Life times ] were spent in working its accomplish | ment. Fortune after fortune were put | in the sand dunes. But until this year
 not a shovel full of sand had been lifted, nor had a pick been stuck in the ground.
 1 To Come True.
 | Is the dream now in the way of full fillment? Is 1t possibility? I have been told that it Is a certainty. From l reliable source I have the information that the work had been actually, un- l dertaken, that men are even now un- | der broiling June sun working away at railroad building almost at the walls of Fort Morgan. I had 1t from an of- ficer of the Navy Cove HarbA; and | Railroad Company, that the work which was now begun would continue until a connection had been made with | the Bay Minette and Fort Morgan Rail- road at its present terminus of Foley, | which is twenty-seven miles south of | Bay Minette. I was assured that men were in the upper end of Baldwin | County getting out crossties for the road and piling for the terminals which were to be built at Navy Cove and that gangs of men were at work among the | sand dunes.
 The road is being built. The long | delayed improvements has been inaug- urated. Men of energy and of capital are engineering and steering the en- | terprise. Will it be an independent terminal. or an appendage of the Louis vile and Nashville? The Louisville and Nashville frankly controls the branch line which runs down to Foley It was built under the name of a sepa- rate company. but when the construc- l eAOi was lHe DullulnR com pany faded away and the big road took charge and went to running the branch l line. The charge, or rather the asser- | tion. is often made In Mobile that the terminal running from Foley to Fort Morgan will not be any more inde- | pendent than Is the branch line with which it will connect.
 This is emphatically denied by the men who are interested In the terminal company. An emphatic denial was made of it by w. C. Dinwiddie, Secre- tary of the company.
 | "It is simply a business proposition with fine opportunities which we have undertaken" said MT. Dinwiddie Tt is the finding of new port and a new outlet right at the water of the Gulf There is room for only one railroad to reach Navy Cove. The little strip of land is really too narrow to accommo- date two roads. We bought up at a considerable cost the land on this strip and the land about Navy Cove. This | practically gives us monopoly of Navy Coves natural advantages" The COmpany's Opportunities. Tae advantages of our enterprise as a business proposition can be seen at l glance. When the harbors and ter minals have been built we will own not only the wharves and the terminals, but the only road touching them as we'll When Navy Cove becomes d great harbor for the Gulf and the Pan anna trade we will have the only road leading into Navy Cove
 This is the only reason for the building of the terminal and the road, 1 We arc not an appendaSe of any road
 We would be glad for obvious reasons | if other railroads would come into