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These early steamboats used for * fuel wood which was contracted for and stacked at intervals along the river bank. Fresh water for the Doiler was pumped from the rivers, but on the Gulf Coast runs the boats carried fresh water tanks which had to be refilled every few . hours. It is very probable that these wood and water stops contributed to the early development of Mississippi Coast towns.
Stores, hotels and restaurants grewup around the steamboat landing, which apparently was at Bay St. Louis and Pass Christian.
An 1855 advertisement of Charles ! Bellman's drug store gave the ad- < dress at "the East end of the plank 1 walk, Biloxi, Mississipppi.” It is easy to speculate that the steam- 1 boat landing at Biloxi was on the pass, with the-early stores lined along a plank walk extending west from what is now Bellman Street, j
At Pascagoula the steamboat ! landing was near the mouth of the river. It is not known how Mississippi City and Handsboro developed in this era. Gulfport and Long Beach came later.
In the March 4, 1855, issue of the Ocean Springs Gazzette the steamer Creole carried an advertisement giving Its schedule, rates and other information. The running time to New Orleans was eight hours. A news item stated j that the Creole will be off the run for several months for repairs, and her place will be taken by the steamer California.	1
Another news item reported the ? | progress of construction of the new
By 1832 steamboat arrivals at New Orleans had grown to about a hundred a month. Much of the agricultural wealth of the Mississippi Valley flowed through this port, making it the queen city of the river. It was inevitable that this steamboat boom would ovpt-flow to the Mississippi Coast through Lake Pontchartrain and the Rigolets. The Louisiana coast is a dismal swamp.
In 1831 the Pontchartrain Railroad connected New Orleans with the lakefront town of Milneburg which was not only a resort but a port for steamboat traffic to and from the Mississippi Coast and Mo-bilp
An early indication of Coast de-velopoent was a mail contract between the U. S. Postal Service and George Whitman in 1837 to conduct a mail route by stemboat from Mobile to New Orleans by way of Pass Christian. This old record from the National Archives specified the distance as 163 miles.
With increased steamer traffic, there was need for navigational improvements. In 1838 John Grant i by act of the Alabama Legislature | was given the right to dredge a channel between Dauphin Island and the mainland, and to charge a toll of not more than fifteen cents per ton on steamboats and other vessels using the passage, which came to be known as Grant’s Pass.
In 1848 this same John Grant and five associated organized the New Orleans and Mobile Steam Mail Line Co. Later he personally took \; command of their steamer Florida \ and thus acquired the title of cap- j tain. Many of Grant's descendants | still thrive on the coast he helped j to build.	I