Fort Morgan Lands Giant Pipe

Alabama Beach The waters of the Gulf of Mexico have once again revealed a mystery

by Debbie Williams

Published: Wed, February 04, 2009 - 4:15 pm CST Last Updated: Wed, February 04, 2009 - 5:37 pm CST

Covered in barnacles and algae, a pipe 500 feet long and 30 inches wide stretches across six property lines. Walking along this strip of beach, it's pretty hard to miss.
"We live along Lake Michigan so we're kind of used to stuff like that," says tourist Mike Squire.
The best guess is, this is some sort of dredging pipe. But how it got here and how long it's been here no one seems to know.
"That looks like some sort of dredging mechanism on the end. It's not a drill pipe. I worked with the oil companies for quite a few years and it's not an drill pipe. It looks like a dredge pipe," says Assistant Fire Chief Glen Stevens.
Exxon Mobil flew a chopper over the pipe and according to Stevens, they say it's too big to be one of theirs. The Coast Guard, Fish and Wildlife and the Corps of Engineers have also been contacted.
"We're concerned once spring break gets here we have a lot of kids that are going to be playing on this so we need to get this out of here by then," says Stevens.
For now though it's a topic of conversation, another tourist attraction and another item to add to the ever growing list of things you wouldn't expect to find on the beach.
You can add the massive pipe to a list of unusual items that have visited our beaches over the years including; a re-appearing mystery ship uncovered by storms and buried again by time, and two unmanned military drones that crashed last summer along Fort Morgan.

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