Where
culinary meets casual . . . |
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The Story of "Zeke"
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Carl
Taylor Martin |
"Zeke's
Landing" is so called in memory of a farsighted turn-of-the-century
Pleasure Island land pioneer. This
man, whose descendants still live in the area, envisioned greater things for the
1,000 acres of wild and glistening white, sand dune-covered land he homesteaded
after a vicious hurricane in 1926 drove out the previous settler. The area from
Fort Morgan to Romar Beach was an unpopulated peninsula. Only a few families�
bad preceded Zeke to the Orange Beach area. Zeke
was not a man to shirk. A native of Mobile, be earned a varsity letter on
Vanderbilt University's 1909-1910 basketball team, and is known even today as
"one of the university's greatest," A mechanical engineer by trade,
Zeke was an avid fisherman and sportsman/explorer traveling to the far reaches
of the world |
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Most
folks of Zeke's time and place were bewildered by his fascination with this
difficult to reach claim between Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. But Zeke
knew the answer. He found its natural beauty irresistible the snowy dunes, the
clear Gulf of Mexico beating on a pristine shore; the abundant harvest of the
sea and the teeming shellfish banks in its bays. Biting
flies and ferocious alligators in swampy areas where the norm in these parts so
long ago, The miserable hours spent traversing a "three-trail-road"
wagon wheels on the outside; mule in the middle and the final, often hazardous
skiff voyage to reach the homestead barely dimmed Zekes enthusiasm for his
newfound Eden, according to accounts. Zeke,
reigned for a time as king of this remote paradise. The land bas over the years
been subdivided but Zekes name lives on, not only in this restaurant but at
Romar Beach, were a combination of Zeke Martin�s name and that of his partner,
Spurgen Roach, keeps the legend alive. |