While folks in New Orleans claim they started the tradition of Mardi Gras in the U.S., historians say French colonists began celebrating the festival not long after first spotting Mobile Bay in 1699. Two years later, a hearty group of French soldiers and Canadian hunters built a fort on the bluff and formed a colony in 1701, 27 miles away from the site of the current city, according to Jay Higginbotham in his seminal 1977 book “Old Mobile.” The book mentions brief Mardi Gras celebrations in February 1701 and 1702.