This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.


Tuesday Afternoon, July 29, 1933
TT LEE IRWIN in the heart of Darwood on the Jourdan.
THE ONLY “CARALOG” (sometimes spelled carry-log) we knov/ in existence along the Coast is this one photographed—one of tha many picturesque exhibits of Holly Bluff Gardens on the Jordan. This is what the coast timbermen used to haul logs out of the woods before tractors and trucks—and dramatically symbolize* that historic lumbering boom period when the rasp of the saw could be heard along every bay, bayou or river of the CoasL
rden Spot Of The Gulf Coast
but
pub-
oast.
are
x>uis
Dar-
>ther
le of i one n. It i and Jour-Louis white ty on time it is blical for it i the River ng so spiri-• held
oaring seauti-of the latural I tran-ian, if nt but implice
;ht the ingland :s their :h they t in the » limit.
With their contraband aboard these speedboats ran the gauntlet of the Coast Guard back to and, through the waters of Bay St. Louis and disappeared into the mouth of the Jordan River where they transferred it to trucks that sped through the night on their way to thirsty customers in Chicago.
But for over a quarter of a century now the beauty of its gardens has made even the oldtimers on the Coast forget the River Jordan’s bootleg past.
HOLLY BLUFF GARDENS
Holly Bluff Gardens reached by the Kiln Road off U.S. 90 about three miles west of Bay St. Louis and well marked by signs, is open to the public the year round. Located right on the bank of the Jordan River it takes its name from the great Southern hollies that proudly grow on the river’s sandy Dluff.
In this garden nature’s setting remains undisturbed. Here the art of bringing in new and exotic shrubs and flowers, and blending them with the original and unmolested background of this beauty spot, has been so perfectly achieved that it is difficult to determine where Nature's handiwork ieft off and man’s helping hand began.
Two miles of woodland paths wend and wind among patriarch live oaks festooned with Spanish moss, tall towering pines, gnarled cypress, maple and gum trees, the dogwood and wild plum and hollies — yes, hollies from England and China blended with the River Jor-‘s own variety,
.pqths^caEmted,
lies lead you through tfver chwnginpvistas of shrub and floral neauty and variety — where the Cherokee roses, wisteria and wild cherry share honors with camellias, azaleas, ardesia, mountain laurel, spiraea, gardenias, iris and ferns of many kinds — where each in its season welcomes the garden’s guests with its joyous burst of blooms.
TRICKLING BROOK
There is a trickling brook whose gurgling you follow to a mirror like lagoon across which is a delightful rustic bridge. And on this bridge you stop — you don’t really know whygf- except that there is a compulsion inside you to prolong he beauty that encircles you, to
France who was made a Saint by the Pope, and in whose.honor both the bay and the city of Bay St. Louis were named. Several years ago this statue was brought from France by the owners of Holly Bluff Gardens and placed in this setting of Cathedral calm and serenity, close to the community and the body of water that commemorates this French King’s name and fame.
LITTLE MUSEUM You will visit the “Little Museum” in which are exhibited a fortune in collector’s items — Grecian and Roman objects of clay dating back to the fifth and sixth century; bronze figures from excavations along the Mediterranean; pottery from the Etruscans, the Italians, Greeks and Romans; sparkling old and rare glassware from Germany, Holland and the Low countries; porcelains from the famous Meissen factory and delicate porcelains from China. A collection representing a lifetime of selection and discrimination by- the owners of Holly Bluff, Mr. and Mrs. James L. Crump, in their travels or by purchase.
And in your leisurely stroll through Holly Bluff Gardens you will see the picturesque log cabin lodge where the Crumps reside — made of cypress logs brought from the Pearl River swampland, with 48 foot long cypress beams and with thousands of hand hewn cypress shingles forming the roof.
This is now the permanent home of the Crumps whose Holly Bluff Gardens are only part of the 3800 acre tract that fronts five miles along the Jordan. When Mr. Cruipp retired from the cotton business in which he had been engaged for nearly 50 years, he entered on a
age*™.*"***
was started on the long, low rambling and comfortable manor house — built of long leaf seasoned pine and tidewater cypress with a roof of old English slate — which is today filled with the antique and prized rarities Dr. Irwin has collected in his world travels. This Jourdan River home he called Darwood House, a name coined from an adaptation of his mother’s first name and the wooded paradise around it.
And then began the consummation of a dream — the creation on about fifty acres of this subtropical paradise of what is now one of the most beautiful gardens open to the public in the Deep South — which he also called Darwood on the Jourdan.
TOURIST ATTRACTIONS
Today both Darwood House and Darwood Gardens are high on the list of tourist attractions of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
When visitors enter the beautiful wrought iron gates of Darwood they continue to drive a long and lovely mile through the wooded park on the outer fringe of the gardens before they come to the second set of gates where they park and proceed on foot — over another mile and a half of footpaths that wind their way through the Garden’s fascinating exhibits of floral beauty.
Every turn and twist of these corridors of beauty is attractively marked by a direction sign, each of which is a cut out metal silhouette depicting some scene, some . animal or some character found in children’s story books — all handmade and placed by James 0. Normand, the managing supervisor of Darwood Garden. Af.d for
from their tree canopied tranquility into the bright splendor of greei carpeted open vistas.
Or in the path suddenly will appear a waterfalls fed by a hidden artesian well — a fountain with the figure of Mercury proudly poised in its center — a lily pond pool fed by a stream of water emerging from the mouth of tha mammoth metal frog — a bridge of native Mississippi sandstone across another lagoon — historic sugar kettles from the old Louisi- • ana plantations, ni*e of them artistically spotted throughout the garden in Afferent sizes.
Then there’s the Rough House — a picnic pavilion right in the heart of Darwood — a completely enclosed building with a huge fireplace, an overhead electric fan, tables and wicker chairs, a barbecue pit and kitchen, a rest room and a patio in the rear.
ANCIENT TRAIL There’s the old unmolested ancient pioneer trail through these woods that Darwood has borrowed as one of its own — a trail that leads to the Jourdan River bank where in times long past a ferry must have awaited its occasional passengers. And near this trail ara Darwood’s famous Money Holes, left by Dr. Irwin as they originally were — five different places where treasure seekers had dug deep for the hidden loot that the folklore of the Bay St. Louis area says was buried by the sea pirates and land pirates that were part of the pi-caiesque past of the Bay St. Louis rivers, bayous and inlets. DARWOOD HOUSE And then on to Darwood House — part of the tour — where visitors'
ul Holly Bluff Gardens is only^one phase. He has converted, cut overland,- the site of former timber forestland, into some of the finest grassland clover pastures in Mississippi.
CATTLE1 DEVELOPMENT
He has gone into the development of Braford cattle, starting in the early Fifties with a herd of 32 head of three-fourths Hereford and one-fourth Brahman, purchased in Texas
And he has been experimenting with upland rice for sixteen years.
Holly Bluff on the Jordan is not only one of the most beautiful gardens in the South but it is a little v-attle and agricultural kingdom whose owner is «»operating with
^,..^ovlce	e	Pushes,ylant^ tujdL^yj4beitjegister in fhe auest:
SSSlTftWtlU WiVMH*Ctiveiy-HBggeabooJ[ that they have been'preceded with both their common antfvLatin ^ people from every state in ttv names.	| Union and many foreign counWiee
There are the camellias,, many pjere you wju enjoy examining different varities — including the a riyet ^ came from ^ 7134, complete twenty varieties^, of the j-rs^ dirigible to cross the ocean rare Camellia Riteculatus.l japable ^ 1919; the piano over 200 years 'm -/S* na“
of blooms eight inches acrl^, na- old>	0'ne prized in the Met-
tive of China, but now filing a r0p0jjtan Museum; the second edi-new and hospitable home at* par- Uon o£ the Colt pistoli ^ {irst ona wood. In Darwood is a camellia .	a ^pgring cartridge; shell-
tree that is over 90 years old, hav-lcases from chateau Thiery and
enjoy as long as you can the ex-	a
hiJirating and soothing smell of	aCounty	0n
complete
ing been originally transplanted from Clinton, Louisiana, to New Orleans and from New Orleans to Darwood by Dr. Irwin where it is still lustily thriving and dispensing blooms of four different colors. ARDESIA ABUNDANT There is the ardesia (including an albino ardesia) so abundant in Darwood that one of the trails is known as Ardesia Walk. There are
j • .	s.-mr»4*.o r« *7 r»1	rpH
Verdun, each with their personal history; a camphor cheit from China; in fact a treasure house of antiques, heirlooms and mementos of many lands and many years.
Darwood on the Jourdan is now close to twenty years old — every year of which has seen more plants added, more beauty conceived in the careful planning of its informal arrangement — a beauty spot so
v,.U •>»* .lw.	ohrilhc


BSL 1950 To 1969 Eagle-Souvenire-Centennial-Edition-(03)
© 2008 - 2024
Hancock County Historical Society
All rights reserved