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Mobile Alabama home of America's oldest Mardi Gras celebration

KCBX | By Tom Wilmer
Published April 17, 2017 at 2:53 AM PDT
Mobile, Alabama's Carnival Museum
Tom Wilmer

Mobile, Alabama celebrated its first Mardi Gras carnival back in 1703, years before New Orleans. Today the two-week annual affair generates more than 12,000 year round jobs supporting the Carnival, from hair dressers to float builders. Carnival is such a big deal, it's a State and local holiday. Join Judi Gulledge, Executive Director of the Mobile Carnival Association at the Mobile Carnival Museum.

Gift shop at Mobile Carnival Museum
Credit Thomas Wilmer /
Gift shop at Mobile Carnival Museum

Ornate hand embroidered trains on display at Mobile Alabama Carnival Museum

Ornate hand embroidered trains on display at Mobile Alabama Carnival Museum
Credit Tom Wilmer
Ornate hand embroidered trains on display at Mobile Alabama Carnival Museum

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Travel NPR OneMobile AlabamaMardi GrasMobile Carnival MuseumJudi Gulledge
Tom Wilmer
Tom Wilmer produces on-air content for Issues & Ideas airing over KCBX and is producer and host of the six-time Lowell Thomas award-winning NPR podcast Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer. Recorded live on-location across America and around the world, the podcasts feature the arts, culture, music, nature, history, science, wine & spirits, brewpubs, and the culinary arts--everything from baseball to exploring South Pacific atolls to interviewing the real Santa Claus in the Arctic.
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