Gulf State Park is a six thousand one hundred fifty-acre public recreation area in Gulf Shores, Alabama, spanning Gulf beachfront and inland habitats that include marshland, pine forest, tea-colored streams, and three spring-fed lakes, with Lake Shelby the largest. Created in the nineteen thirties through Civilian Conservation Corps construction and opened in nineteen thirty-nine, it developed into one of Alabama’s best-known coastal parks, offering beaches, fishing, swimming, trails, camping, cottages, and a lodge. Coastal storms have repeatedly reshaped it, especially Hurricane Ivan in two thousand four and Hurricane Sally in two thousand twenty, prompting rebuilding that included a major fishing pier. Controversy also surrounded the new lodge project opened in two thousand eighteen.