Today, even though Baldwin is a rural county, it is quickly moving in the direction of becoming more cosmopolitan as the quality of life here becomes less of a secret to the rest of the world. In turn the driving force of the economy in this 21^st century county is the tourism that the 30-plus miles of beach along the Gulf generates each year. Fifty years ago there was a different, more traditional king that ruled the economy in Baldwin. And that king was the timber industry. Although not far behind the production of timber was the annual potato yield. Baldwin County produced an extraordinary amount of red and white potatoes from an astounding 10,500 acres.

By 1962, Baldwin County had been, for several years, recognized as the state’s leader in the production of pulpwood, poles, and piling. At that time, the forests of Baldwin County were producing in excess of 160,000 cords of pulpwood and more than 85,000 poles and piling yearly. In addition, the county’s lumber producers yielded more than 30,000 board feet of lumber each year.

In order to produce these staggering numbers, an army of qualified workers enlisted by the producers, labored to put into place the best practices known to the industry at the time. One of the primary concerns, as voiced by the Alabama Forest Products Association, was the prevention of the destruction wrought by uncontrolled forest fires. While a controlled burn was, and is, beneficial to the health of a forest, an uncontrolled fire can damage property and threaten lives. Indeed, that fact has not changed in the last 50 years. And what’s more, the “green” movement that has swept America in the past decade is not a new phenomenon. In the early 1960s Alabama foresters initiated a program called “Keep Alabama Green” as a means of educating the public on the dangers of forest fires and the ways by which they could be avoided. The focus was placed on what the forest meant to the people of Alabama in the form of jobs, products, recreation, and taxes.

Five decades ago, Baldwin’s contribution to the forest-products industry was exceptional. The amounts of pulp- and paper-related products from Alabama alone during 1962, eclipsed the amount generated by all southern states in the decades leading up to that point. In 1962, nearly two-thirds of the nation’s pulp and paper came from the south and a very large percentage of that was harvested in Alabama.

According to a July 1962 edition of the Baldwin Times, the Baldwin County potato crop grossed approximately five million dollars in sales. Contributing to the bumper crop was the relatively low amount of rainfall during the growing season and the optimal temperature that the spring of 1962 brought. While there are virtually no potatoes grown in Baldwin County today, save for private use, the harvest in 1962 encompassed more than 10,000 acres. It began in the first week of May and continued through June 19 with a few shipments made after that date. More than 1,800 truck loads and 2,000 rail cars were shipped from Baldwin County during that same period.

Traveling the county roads of Baldwin today will carry you past great numbers of wooded acres, even though they are not as vast as they once were. The commercial fields in the county now play host to peanuts, cotton, and corn among other cash crops. The traffic is heavy along State Highway 59 which leads the tourists to the mecca that is the beaches of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. That old, two lane road has become a four lane highway in the past 50 years and is crowded with vehicles most of the year. Rail cars no longer line up to be filled with the thousands of potatoes produced in the fields of Baldwin County farmers, even though local farmers continue to work tirelessly to produce modern cash crops. Life has changed immensely in Baldwin County over the past 50 years. Even so, the people remain strong willed and hard workers because their love of place has not changed at all.