Donna Watts always thought her grandmother had seen more change in her lifetime than anyone would see again. But after watching Baldwin County grow up over several decades, Watts has decided she was wrong — she's seen more change than her grandmother could have imagined.

Watts, president and CEO of the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce, is a fifth generation Baldwin County resident. She grew up in Stapleton, and since her childhood, she has seen the railroad disappear, watched Gulf Shores go from a secluded beach to a tourist attraction and marveled at the population growth the county has experienced.

“There were not many people here at all in the entire county, and certainly not in Stapleton,” she said.

Watts remembers walking to church and school, playing on the railroad tracks and taking vacations in Gulf Shores — vacations that felt more like a camping excursion on a deserted island.

“We used to go spend a lot of time at the summer at the beach, and back then, you had to drive across a drawbridge to go across the canal,” she said. “We would get down to our cabin, and you couldn't drink the water, so you had to go to the old Post Office and pump the water out of the well with a hand pump. I remember helping my dad bring water back to cook with and to drink. My sister and I would park our car on the beach road and climb up over sand dunes that were just as tall as houses. We would spend all day long there and never see another soul.”

Watts said she doesn't remember when Highway 59 was a dirt road, but her husband, who is two years older, does. She does remember it being a narrow, two-lane road with trees growing alongside it.

But once Hurricane Frederic hit Gulf Shores in 1979, the white sandy beaches were plastered on people's televisions across the country. Suddenly, Alabama had a beach.

“The rest of the world really didn't know that Alabama had a beach,” Watts said. “So when you have national news media here showing these sugar-white beaches, even though they were a mess, I think people said, 'Look, Alabama has a beach,' and they felt like they were explorers, so they came, and it changed our world.”

As the tourists started heading to the beaches and the area began growing slowly, talk of turning Highway 59 into a four-lane road was scoffed by many people, Watts said.

“They had never known a world where that would be necessary,” she said. “I look back on that now and chuckle and smile. I think we all fall into that trap sometimes — we can't grasp what we've never experienced, and we don't open our vision up far enough to imagine how much it can change in a lifetime.”

Now, in her job at the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce, Watts tries to always remember how no one could have imagined the growth Baldwin County has experienced in her lifetime. She is always looking ahead and trying to help the county handle growth and development well.

“I want to see Baldwin County grow and prosper and work together,” she said. “Part of what we do as a Chamber to help the growth and development of the greater region is look at long-range issues like infrastructure that are critical to our future.”

As a Baldwin County native who is also excited about the county's growth, Watts feels a responsibility to help maintain the county's small-town feel while also encouraging growth rather than stifling it in an effort to keep things the way they've been in the past.

“I know there are a lot of people who come here and have the 'OK, now I'm here; you can lock the gate' mentality, but we can't lock that gate,” she said. “I've been here when there was nothing, and that's not a fun place to be. And when we choke this area off from growth and prosperity, there will be no one here again — and nothing. No options, no variety, no hundreds of restaurants within a five-mile drive, and trust me, no one wants to go back to those days. I know we say those were the good old days, but I lived them, and they weren't all that great.”

Through her work with the Chamber, Watts hopes she can help attract and keep businesses that will employ future generations and enhance the quality of life of Baldwin County residents.

“I see my job as honoring the traditions and the history, and protecting the quality of our life that we treasure and value so much,” she said. “But also moving the county forward, so our children and our grandchildren have opportunities to grow up, get an education and come back here and be the future leaders of this community.”