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'Over the river and through the woods...
Traveler found Hancock heavenl)
A century ngo, the* Mississippi Count wns n mixture of budding nonfood and lumber Industries, hunting nnd fishing paradises, nnd sleepy villages occasionally awakened by tourists.
Into thlH land of potential rode II.A. Wilkinson. His mount was an Iron Horse, chugging down Iron rails laid across previously Impassable swampland. Wilkinson kept his eyes open and his pen busy as he traveled the 80 miles from Waveland to Pascagoula.
In 1886, the coastline contained a handful of canneries and mills, scattered hotels, remnants of past cultures, fish-laden waters and virgin forests crawling with game. Wilkinson reported these findings to a New Orleans newspaper, nnd his letters were later re-i-.i.tuu in iim: uuuKlci, //n.' bull Lo.isf.
Today, his trnvel log offers a rare glimpse of the life and times of 1880. Then, It was an enticement to travelers.
"To the denizens of a less favored latitude, the Gulf Coast presents attractions of n more varied nature than nny other Southern locality.*' proclaimed the Coast Introduction.
Wilkinson wrote of the mild climate, the soclalable Inhabitants, the tasty seafood, the rod nnd gun possibilities and the area's potential.
Sometimes he was not so kind in his assessments. In one letter from Hancock County he wrote: “It seems so easy for the rural population to live here that they have apparently no desire to grow rich or as progressive as the agricultural population of less-favored sections."
Wilkinson, an avid hunter, singled out game posslbllltes In Harrison County:
"The charms of camp life In the Invigorating clime of the pine innds nnd onk forests. . . arc to be found In the former famous hunting grounds of the Hed Mnn beyond Biloxi Hay; there the lumberman's nx nnd the hunter's rifle In cheering tones tell the stranger the great American forests arc not yet all felled and American game not all gone. .. "
And In Jackson County, he was Impressed with the history of the original Biloxi settlement, now Ocean Springs:
"The old Biloxi colony Is full of Interest to the Americans of the present day. In time It will be regarded as of far more importance and more famous than Massachusetts Bay, where the pilgrim fathers landed with the Bible In one hand and the blunderbuss In the oUlQi:."
Wilkinson’s booklet was published in an era of overcnthuslastlc prose that often lured tourists to coastal areas that were unable to live up to such prnlse. Hut that was not the case of Thn Gulf Coast, or so insisted the booklet's Introduction:
“Although Mr. Wilkinson is a very gifted writer, we know from pcrsonnl experience that he hns not drnwn upon his Imagination It* describing the nltrnctlons of this coast, nnd thnt the tourists vlnltlng it will find Its reality fully up to the portrayal.
His travel log first appeared In the New Orleans Times Democrat. Seizing a publicity opportunity, the passenger department of the Louisville k Nnshvllle Railroad had the Mississippi letters reprinted in booklet form. L&N had a vested Interest In the towns Wilkinson described, for end) of those communities hnd a railway station. Those were the days of "Pullman's finest Buffet Sleeping Coaches, elegant passenger and smoking cars, bnggnge nnd mall cars” and two LAN express trains Hint passed through the Mississippi Coast on their New Orleans-Cincln-natl runs.
Wilkinson boarded his train at the foot of Canal Street, so his first section describes the trip up to the Mississippi line. In flowery language he wrote of the swamp trees "looped and festooned with the funereal or-
Gulf Coast chronicles
By KAT BERGERON
namentntlon of the gray Spanish moss, whlc trails and swings to and fro in the air." H wrote of the sea marsh "intersected by man. bayous and dotted with numerous lake where green vegetable rafts of lotus leave, and lily pads turn slowly with the tide." H« wruic oi the tlslilng and hunting off English Lookout, just before the Mississippi line.
Over the border
"The mouth of the Pearl into the Gulf of Mexico, or more directly, Mississippi Sound, is surrounded by sea marsh. Near the L&N crossing, and higher up at the confluence of Mulatto Bayou, huge shell mounds covered with live oak groves and forests rise above the marshes.
"Seventy years ago they were used as ccmetcrlcs by the English and Americans for the Interment of slain Boldlers and sailors. In prehistoric ages they were apparently employed for the same purpose, as skeletons, fragments of pottery, stone hatchets and arrow-heads arc frequently cxcavated from their depths by the shell dealers who boat them away to be sold for paving the streets and drives of Southern cities.
"To the eastward of Pearl River broad sweeps of grassy savannas stretch fmm the' distant pine lands to the sen, down between Intervening Islands and peninsulas of forests./ Here arc thousands and tens of thousands of/ acres of mngnlflccnt grazing lands. Some o the nntebellum residents still call Hancocl| and Harrison the ‘cow counties of Mlssisslp) pi.’ The title Is more likely to have desccndr from the presence of great buffalo droves 1 the region than from the quantity of domesti cattle once reared here.
"On the Mississippi seacoast the vanlshc bison has not been followed by the fattening beef. The great waste of cheap and valuabl pasture lands, lying in a long stretch, grecl with hcrbnge nnd abundantly watered, is no utilized. U docs not contain one animal where a thousand might roam and grow fat.'
And then Waveland
"Journeying from the Pearl, and passing the plnc-clad plains ... we arrived next and stopped at Waveland, one of the many popular pleasure resorts of the Gulf Coast.
"This delightful resort Is well-named. The wnvcs of the Gulf, with crystal limpidity nnd white crests, come rippling In from the broad summer sea beyond, leaving the white sands of the sloping beach, and breaking Into sparkling foam at the end of their long voyage from the distant, unseen southward islands.
"The summer villas and winter residences of the Inhabitants arc in harmony with the natural scene. Cottages, whose porch columns and balcony railings are covered by climbing roses and sweet-scented, clinging vines; shadowy, wide-roofed mansions with broad verandas and airy halls, resting at a respectable distance back from the beach to give the dignity of great extent to the verdant lawns In the foreground.
"The village extends along the coast in a succession of such habitations for several miles — miles of sparkling waves, shining sands, velvety green banks and forest-clad headlands. The rude Northern winter never gnins a foothold In such a locality.
"This Is Waveland. Its people have done