Baldwin County, Alabama is the largest county east of the Mississippi River, covering almost 1,600 sq. miles. It was first formed in 1809 by the legislature of the Mississippi Territory. Former home of the Tensas and Creeks, Muscogee Woodland Indians, this area has been influenced by the French, Spanish, English, Scottish, Canadian and Irish; later by the Italians, Greeks, Germans, Swiss and Dutch and now is truly international. The intracoastal waterway links Pensacola to the east with Mobile in the west. Baldwin is bounded on the north by lush woodlands and fertile farmlands and on the south by sparkling beaches, all transected by fresh water creeks and rivers. Baldwin County has well over 200 cemeteries. This is the place for the annual Shrimp Festival and German Sausage Festival, Spanish Moss and oyster shells, salt air and Jubilee. Since its earliest days of pirates and planters, shell banks, salt mines and sugar cane - life is good on Alabama's southern shore.