Legends and Lore of the Mississippi Golden Gulf Coast

By Edmond Boudreaux Jr.

Colorful tales of the MS Gulf Coast from specters to sodas and from buccaneers and pioneers.

The story of the Mississippi Golden Gulf Coast can't be told without a few tall tales--pirates, buried treasure, ghosts and colorful characters pepper its diverse past. From incredible stories of the pirate Jean Lafitte to iconic legends like Barq's Root Beer, travel from Bay St. Louis to Biloxi and every nook and cranny in between to discover the legends and lore of Mississippi's Golden Gulf Coast. Local historian Edmond Boudreaux explores this exciting history, recounting the fantastic tales that launch the reader into the past and create a truly captivating history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Feb 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781614239253

Edmond Boudreaux Jr.

Edmond Boudreaux is a local historian and history columnist from Saucier, Mississippi. Boudreaux is an award-winning archaeologist and decorated veteran and is the author the 2011 History Press book, The Seafood Capital of the World: Biloxi's Maritime History.

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INTRODUCTION

During the 1970s, Captain Joe Scholtes became a tour guide and historical interpreter of Mississippi’s Golden Gulf Coast. He hoped to promote tourism and brought tourism dollars to the whole Gulf Coast. He coined the phrase Mississippi’s Golden Gulf Coast while selling Mississippi’s Golden Gulf Coast as a tourist destination where visitors could soak up the sun while enjoying a variety of activities, including swimming, fishing and golfing. He was also selling Mississippi’s Golden Gulf Coast as a place rich in history, structures, legends and lore.

There were numerous historical homes, like the Pirate House; St. Stanislaus School; the Dixie White House; Ballymere; the Mississippi Centennial buildings on the Gulfport Veterans’ Administration grounds; Beauvoir, the last home of Jefferson Davis; Father Ryan’s Home; Old (Biloxi Cemetery) French Cemetery; Biloxi Lighthouse; Ancient Burial Grounds (Moran Art Studio) on Porter Avenue; Magnolia Hotel; Old French House; Spanish House; Le Moyne Galleries; Church of the Redeemer and the Ring in Oak; Seashore Methodist Assembly; St. Michael Catholic Church, the fishermen’s church; Old Place Plantation; Long Fellow House; Old Spanish Fort and Museum; and many more.

Rooted deep in the Golden Gulf Coast history and the history of its structures were legends and lore, retold from generation to generation while being modified and refined. It is hard to separate fact from fiction in many of these legends and lore, but they do give us a window into Mississippi’s Golden Gulf Coast culture. Some legends are believed to be fact but are just well-crafted tales that entertain and amuse us. Mixed with historical facts, they become a part of the history of the Mississippi’s Golden Gulf Coast. This book will explore and separate the facts and fiction of these historic legends, as well as how they have evolved over time and gained lives of their own. These legends and historical lore have become part of the fabric of Mississippi’s Golden Gulf Coast culture and a piece of its history.

CHAPTER 1

MISSISSIPPI’S GOLDEN GULF COAST

The first mention of Mississippi’s Golden Gulf Coast appears in a booklet entitled The First Edition 1970–71 Tour Guide & History of Mississippi’s Golden Gulf Coast: From New Orleans to Mobile. The brainchild of Captain Joe Scholtes and his wife (referred to as his mate on the cover of the booklet), the guide is a window into the 1970s Golden Gulf Coast. This is very recent history, but the changes that have occurred on the Mississippi Golden Gulf Coast since 1970 are amazing. Aboard the Sailfish, Captain Joe Scholtes conducted tours of Biloxi Harbor, including shrimping and oystering exhibitions. During his life, he collected numerous historical photographs of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Some of this collection would later be published as Biloxi and the Mississippi Gulf Coast: A Pictorial History, by Colleen C. Scholtes and L.J. (Joe) Scholtes.

The three coast counties have grown by 38.8 percent over a period from 1970 to 1990. In 1970, the Mississippi Gulf Coast was still recovering from Hurricane Camille. Joe’s opening letter to visitors indicates that the Golden Gulf Coast is slightly tarnished at the moment, please remember we are still recovering from a most unladylike visit. The guide indicates that the Mississippi’s Golden Gulf Coast extends from New Orleans to Mobile. Scholtes reports that the sister cities of Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Long Beach, Gulfport, Biloxi, Ocean Springs and Pascagoula form the Golden Gulf Coast.

The guide contains a brief history of each city but then describes activities, sights to see, restaurants, motels, hotels and miscellaneous information. This is a basic look at businesses and sites that were either restored or suffered little damage after Camille’s destructive visit. The guide begins on Old Spanish Trail, U.S. Highway 90, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and ends in Mobile, Alabama.

Courtesy of the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum.

The Tulane Hotel, Bay St. Louis. Courtesy of Alan Santa Cruz Collection.

Here is a look at the 1970 cities, history and places listed in the guide. Bay St. Louis is the seat of Hancock County, with a 1970 population of ten thousand. Scholtes indicates that General Thomas Shields built two houses near the mouth of the bay. This settlement became known as Shieldsboro. Scholtes reports that the name was changed to Bay St. Louis, and in 1858, the city was incorporated.

In Bay St. Louis, the guide lists the Bay-Waveland Yacht Club on Beach Drive as a point of interest. Other points of interest were St. Augustine’s Seminary, located on Highway 90, and St. Stanislaus College, a Catholic elementary and secondary boarding school for boys on South Beach. St. Stanislaus was founded in 1855. Boys from New Orleans, Mobile and the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast, as well as from other states, have attended St. Stanislaus. Some students have come from as far away as Cuba, Mexico and Venezuela. In 1970, the school averaged about five hundred students a year. Horne’s Restaurant on U.S. 90 and Ramada Inn & Restaurant are the only restaurants and motels listed.

Here at the city of Bay St. Louis the Mississippi Golden Gulf Coast crosses the bridge over the Bay of St. Louis, and you arrive at Henderson Point in Pass Christian. Pass Christian’s 1970 population was 5,500. The Pass Christian Yacht Club is the oldest in the South, organized in 1849. Scholtes points out that Mrs. Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer (1861–1951) lived in Pass Christian for almost fifty years. Mrs. Gilmer went by the nom de plume of Dorothy Dix, and her syndicated column was Dorothy Dix Talks. Scholtes called her Mother confessor to the nation.

President Woodrow Wilson stayed in Pass Christian for the Christmas holidays of 1913–14. The Wilson family stayed three weeks in a home that was designated the Dixie White House. In 1916, former president Teddy Roosevelt was the guest of John M. Parker of Pass Christian.

The Pass Christian Isles Golf Club was listed as an eighteen-hole course. According to the guide, one of the oldest homes in the city is the Ballymere, located at 551 East Beach, built in 1839. The Pass Christian Oyster Reef, just off shore, was listed as a place where, during oyster season, one can see men hand tonging oysters from the reef. There were two restaurants listed: the Plantation Restaurant on East Beach and the La Galerie on West Beach.

The next city is Long Beach, with a 1970 population of ten thousand. Long Beach was established in 1884. It was the vegetable farming and trucking center of the Gulf Coast, and produce was trucked from New Orleans to Mobile.

Long Beach was the home of Gulf Park Junior College for Women. Today it is known as USM Gulf Park Campus, Long Beach on Highway 90. The college first opened its doors in 1921. On the campus, classes are conducted amidst the branches of the huge live oak called the Friendship Oak. Long Beach’s Gulf View Motel was also located on West Beach.

Next door to Long Beach is Gulfport, the Harrison County seat. Gulfport’s 1970 population was fifty-five thousand. Scholtes points out that after the Civil War, some Mississippians recognized the wealth of Mississippi’s pine forest. According to Scholtes, the creation of Gulfport in 1887 was to meet the needs of the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad Company for a railroad and harbor access to deep water. The first large vessel entered Gulfport Harbor in 1902 and was the beginning of a boom for Gulfport and the Mississippi Golden Gulf Coast. In 1970, Gulfport Harbor was a major importer of bananas from Central and South America.

The Mississippi State Port at Gulfport. Courtesy of the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum.

Gulfport had two bowling alleys listed and three golf courses. The Triangle Lanes was located on Twenty-fifth Avenue, and Mid City Lanes was on Courthouse Road. The Broadwater Beach Sea Golf Course was located on Highway 90, and the Bayou View Golf Course was on Washington Avenue, while the Gulfport 3 Par Golf Course was on Thirty-fourth Street.

The guide indicated that at the Gulfport Harbor, one could find the Harbor Tour Train, which offered a thirty-minute narrated tour of the harbor. The Pan American Clipper was docked at the small craft harbor and would depart daily for Ship Island excursions. Gulfport Yacht Club was organized in 1903 and hosted annual regattas. In July 1970, the annual Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo was hosted by the city of Gulfport. Scholtes also reports that the Marine Life Aquadome was being rebuilt and would reopen in 1971.

Scholtes listed the Gulfport Veterans’ Administration Hospital, the Air National Guard site at Gulfport-Biloxi Airport and the U.S. Naval Construction Battalion Center as points of interest. Many of the buildings on the VA grounds were built in 1916 for the Mississippi Centennial Exposition to celebrate one hundred years of Mississippi statehood.

Gulfport’s restaurants listed in the guide include Downtowner Motor Inn Dining Room, Moody’s Fountainhead Restaurant & Pancake House and the Captain’s Table, all of which were located on Highway 90. In addition to the Downtowner Motor Inn, the other Gulfport motels and hotels listed were Moody’s Motel & Cottages, Alamo Plaza Hotel Court, Worth Motor Lodge and the Confederate Inn Motel.

Scholtes discusses areas that were once Mississippi City and Handsboro. Mississippi City was established in 1837 and became a resort town, while the city of Handsboro became the marketing and manufacturing center of the Golden Gulf Coast during the 1800s. Scholtes’s guide indicates that Mississippi City and Handsboro are now part of Gulfport and Biloxi. Biloxi and Gulfport have expanded until they now share a common boundary of DeBuys Road.

Biloxi’s 1970 population was seventy thousand. Biloxi is also the home of Keesler Air Force Base, established in 1941. Biloxi was named for the Biloxi Indians. In 1699, the French explorers encountered Biloxi warriors hunting the Biloxi peninsula. Scholtes indicates that Biloxi is the oldest settlement in the Mississippi Valley. He also reports that Biloxi is historically the most interesting of the Gulf Coast towns. Scholtes continues, After you pass Broadwater Beach Hotel and its impressive marina, you enter the section called the ‘Gold Coast’ by local residents for its concentration of night clubs, bars, lounges, amusement park, super slide and miniature ‘Goofy Golf’ course all sure to delight the kids.

In Biloxi, the guide listed the Deer Ranch & Six Gun Junction as a two for the price of one. The ranch was described as being north of the corner on Highway 90 and DeBuys Road behind the Friendship House. Here a tourist or local could hand feed the tame deer, then visit the wild west ghost town with real shoot outs and can-can girls to entertain you. The price of admission was $2.50 for adults and $1.25 for children. Other entertainment places listed in the guide included the Amusement Park and Super Slide, both located on West Beach.

The only bowling alley left in Biloxi after Camille was the Beach Bowl on West Beach, but there were six golf courses listed. They were the Broadwater Beach Sun Golf Course, Sunkist Golf Course, Edgewater Golf Course, Par 3 Golf Course, Broadwater Beach Course and Biloxi Par 3.

Biloxi’s historical and cultural points of interest listed in the guide included Beauvoir, the last home of Jefferson Davis; Father Ryan’s Home; Old (Biloxi Cemetery) French Cemetery; Biloxi Lighthouse; Ancient