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is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city was 7,820. According to the 2007 U.S. Census estimates, the city had a population of 7726. The city is the county seat of Baldwin County. It is part of the Daphne–Fairhope–Foley Micropolitan Statistical Area.
An undercover scheme carried out in the dead of night is responsible for making the City of Bay Minette the County Seat of Baldwin County, Alabama.
In the first days of Baldwin County, the Town of McIntosh Bluff, Alabama (now in Mobile County,Alabama, West of Baldwin County) on the Tombigbee River was the County Seat. After being transferred to the Town of Blakeley in 1810, the County Seat was later moved to the City of Daphne in 1868. In 1900, by an Act of the Legislature of Alabama, the County Seat was authorized for relocation to the City of Bay Minette, however, the City of Daphne resisted relocation.
In order to relocate the County Seat to the City of Bay Minette, the men of Bay Minette devised a scheme. To lure the Sheriff and his Deputy out of the City of Daphne, the men prefabricated a murder. While the law was chasing down the fictitious killer during the late hours, the group of Bay Minette men stealthily traveled the thirty (30) miles to the City of Daphne, stole the Baldwin County Courthouse records, and delivered them to the City of Bay Minette - where Baldwin County's County Seat remains to this day.
Portions of the blockbuster movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind depicting the emergency evacuation of rural Wyoming were filmed near the train depot. In addition, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood was filmed in rural portions of Baldwin County near Bay Minette.