High on High Island - Story of the Cowboy Mafia
By Kimber Fountain
Along the eastern edge of Bolivar Peninsula, just past the point where Highway 87 ends and veers left into Highway 124 towards I-10, sits the unincorporated community of High Island--which is not really an island at all. This brief coastal expanse is attached to the mainland, but it is located atop a salt dome that gives it an elevation of 38 feet, the highest elevation on the Gulf Coast between Mobile, Alabama, and the Yucatan Peninsula. Primarily known today as a birdwatcher’s paradise, High Island experienced a brief run of infamy in the national news during the 1970s.