Fairhope: Iowa Seeds Bear Alabama Fruit

A wise bear, Wro says that "History loves irony." From a tree on the Grand Hotel grounds in Mobile Bay's Eastern Shore, he's meditating on the intermingled destinies of Fairhope, Alabama and Des Moines.

Had Ernest Berry Gaston been born when Iowa farmland was not considerably more expensive than waterfront property on the Gulf Coast, he might very well have changed Iowa dramatically. Iowa’s loss became Alabama’s gain when the Des Moines expatriate fathered one of America’s most eccentric communities on populist, utopian principles that survived the 19th and 20th centuries.

In 1889, even before graduating from Drake University, the precocious descendent of French Huguenot nobility bought the Suburban Advocate which served University Place, now the Drake neighborhood of Des Moines. Gaston used that newspaper as a platform to develop his ideas about social justice. During the next four years, he made a fortune in Iowa real estate, got married, started a family, invented a snow plow and was elected justice of the peace, town recorder and fire chief. He developed his "Single Tax" philosophy from a mixture of Henry George‘s social theories, Populist Party platforms and personal notions about human behavior.

Gaston organized his followers into "The Fairhope Industrial Association" (FIA) with the purpose "to establish and conduct a model community or colony, free from all forms of private monopoly."

Unfortunately, Iowa’s fertile land was prohibitively expensive and other utopian communities had already formed in the West and Great Plains.

Gaston’s followers researched several locations in the South and voted to plant the seeds of their dream on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, in Baldwin County, Alabama where a wealthy Ante Bellum community had deteriorated into shanties. Land sold for just fifty cents to a dollar an acre.

Like today’s snowbirds, Gaston and his followers left Des Moines in November of 1894. Unlike other utopian communities, the heart of Fairhope remains free of private property today. That has attracted a community of artists, dreamers and utopians who anchor the Eastern Shore’s unique life style - called “Carmel on the Gulf.” Fairhope’s 13,000 current residents include colorful professional athletes like World Series star JC Romero and Leon ’”Wrong Way” Lett of the Dallas Cowboys, authors like Fannie Flagg ("Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe") and Winston Grooms ("Forest Gump")

and artists like Nall (pictured in the Grand Hotel lobby), whose eccentric art is as well known in Europe as Christo‘s is here. Fairhope and its cool image has attracted resorts, golf courses and some of the wealthiest zip codes in America, in all directions around it.

A master gardener and student of history, Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie confesses a long fascination with the Fairhope experiment.

“My ancestors moved to Des Moines the same time that Gaston lived here. I like knowing that the seeds of that town came from Des Moines, especially because it has blossomed into something so interesting, attractive and unique,” Cownie said.

Last spring, the mayor sent heirloom seeds to the eastern shore’s historic Grand Hotel, which has an illustrious guest register that includes nearly every US Presidents since the Civil War. (The hotel in Point Clear ooutside Fairhope, was recently named to Conde Nast's list of the world's greatest hotels, at #31.)

Grand Hotel Executive Chef Michael Wallace planted Cownie’s seeds in the resort’s Chef’s Garden. By late summer, guests from Iowa were being treated to the bounty of those seeds.

Sometimes, it takes years for a seed to bear fruit. Sometimes it takes centuries.