Maritime Biloxi

By Val Husley

Site of the landing of Pierre LeMoyne Sieur d'Iberville in February 1699 and the birthplace of the French colony la Louisiane, Biloxi has been nurtured by the waters of the Gulf of Mexico for more than three hundred years. Located almost due north of the mouth of the Mississippi, on a coast laced with small rivers, bays, and bayous, the historic peninsula city owes much of its fortune and growth to the bountiful waters and pleasant salt-air ambiance of the Mississippi Sound. Although Biloxi garnered its earliest fame as a seaside antebellum resort, the arrival of the railroad in 1870 led to the meteoric rise of a seafood industry which, by the end of the nineteenth century, had allowed the city to lay legitimate claim to the title "Seafood Capital of the World." Since the 1880s, a large Biloxi fishing fleet has harvested the Mississippi Sound and adjacent Gulf waters, keeping the city's seafood among the most highly prized in the nation. Today, a bustling new casino gaming industry, resort hotels, and myriad outdoor recreational activities have promoted the city to a world class tourist and retirement destination.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781439627716

Val Husley

Maritime Biloxi traces the history of the city's colorful seafood industry and numerous ancillary maritime activities. It is this combination which provides Biloxi with a cultural raison d'�tre, and serves as a foundation for its three-century heritage. Using many never-before-published images from the collection of Biloxi's Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum, author and historian Val Husley chronicles the history of the city that still looks seaward for its future while celebrating a storied and vibrant past.

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INTRODUCTION

In February 1699, the intrepid Canadian warrior Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville, landed on the Biloxi Peninsula, hoping to rediscover the mouth of the Mississippi River, located by La Salle some 17 years earlier. Iberville’s arrival marked the beginning of France’s attempt to colonize the vast Mississippi Valley. The region known as La Louisiane extended from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada in the shape of an inverted pyramid. Seeking to resolve a variety of internal political and economic issues, France looked to a permanent settlement as the key element in her rivalry with England and Spain for dominance in North America. After a three-year struggle on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the French moved their settlement to a location above Mobile Bay. Returning in 1719, however, they attempted to create the fortified town of Nouveau Biloxy. Although never an established town, the site served briefly as the capital of French Louisiana as well as the entrepôt for several thousand Europeans destined for settlements along the Mississippi River. Nouveau Biloxy was abandoned in 1723 for the more strategic location on the Mississippi River, New Orleans, which had been established in 1718.

Under the dominions of both England (1763–1779) and Spain (1780–1810), the Biloxi Peninsula was viewed remarkably as a strategic location. Lacking a deep-water harbor and fertile soil, the area appeared ill-suited for either a military post or colony. Few settlers, therefore, remained on the peninsula. However, by the end of the 19th-century’s first decade, all the land on the Biloxi Peninsula had been awarded to claimants under a liberal Spanish land grant system. In 1803, the Mississippi Gulf Coast became part of the United States under the Louisiana Purchase. In 1810, Americans in the region revolted against the Spanish still settled in West Florida and petitioned the American Congress for recognition. In 1811, the land along the Mississippi Sound briefly joined the Orleans Territory, and in 1812, the Mississippi Territory. In 1817, the region entered the Union with the State of Mississippi.

In 1811, a party sent by Louisiana governor W.C.C. Claiborne and led by Dr. William Flood traveled to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to survey the population and establish legal jurisdictions. Dr. Flood discovered that Creole families principally had settled there and that their diet consisted of rice, a few root crops, and seafood. In his report Flood offered that however sparsely settled the area, the high sandy soil covered with pine and the beautiful bays and rivers which empty into the sea from Lake Pontchartrain to the Bay of Mobile, [would] promote full recompense for the unhealthiness of the climate of New Orleans. Dr. Flood’s prophesy was realized during the antebellum period, as the Mississippi Gulf Coast witnessed the rapid construction of summer homes, cottages, boardinghouses, and small, gulf-side hotels. Easily accessible by water and boasting countless piers jutting from its shores, the centrally located village of Biloxi by mid-19th century had earned her title as queen of the watering places.

Few roads existed on the Mississippi Gulf Coast before the 1840s when the Pass Christian-Point Cadet Road, a sandy, 30-mile route connecting the Bay of St. Louis and the mouth of Biloxi, evolved. However, the primary transportation for people and goods continued to be a variety of small water craft—skiffs, catboats, sloops, schooners, and small packet steamers. Settlements sprang up as close to navigable waterways as possible. During the Civil War, a Union naval blockade forced the inhabitants to return to their dependency on seafood.

The completion of a rail link between New Orleans and Mobile in 1870 gave rise to a new age of tourism along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. In addition, a successful seafood packing industry was launched, providing Biloxi with a means to market its greatest natural resource—the oyster. Taking advantage of a universal craze for oysters in the 1880s, entrepreneurs opened seafood canneries on the peninsula. By the end of the century, Biloxi had been labeled the Seafood Capital of the World. Oysters and shrimp were harvested by hundreds of sailing craft, primarily two-masted schooners. The Biloxi schooner became the workhorse of a fleet that boasted an annual harvest of millions of pounds of oysters. Until the 1930s, the sails of these vessels dotted the horizon off the Mississippi Gulf Coast. As the local population swelled and money from the seafood industry poured in, Biloxi prospered. The real estate/resort boom of the 1920s spurred further growth on the peninsula and all along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Hotels and golf courses multiplied as greater numbers of visitors sought the temperate climate and relaxed living of the area.

During the post–World War I period the Biloxi sailing fleet was replaced by gasoline-powered vessels. Nevertheless, the seafood industry continued to play a dominant role in the local economy. Although both tourism and the seafood industry would languish during the Great Depression, the creation of a major World War II military post, Keesler Air Force Base, revitalized Biloxi’s sluggish economy. A major hurricane in 1947, however, laid waste to the entire waterfront. With its fleet and factories severely damaged and facing a rapidly changing technology, the seafood industry foundered. In the early 1950s, Biloxi’s economy once again surged, as the longest man-made beach in the country was created along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

In 1969, amidst prosperity, Biloxi was staggered by Hurricane Camille’s unparalleled devastation. Recovery proved monumental. Nevertheless, in the 1980s, Biloxi looked again to the Gulf for inspiration. Biloxi seafood entrepreneurs took advantage of the new technology to become leaders in seafood processing. In 1993, waterborne gaming became a reality. By the end of the 20th century the Biloxi Peninsula had become a national resort/retirement destination.

The inhabitants of Biloxi and the Mississippi Gulf Coast come into contact with the Gulf on a daily basis. Virtually every major artery connects with or proceeds along the Mississippi Sound