Test your knowledge of the Mississippi Coast, part 2

Today is another chance to test your knowledge of the Mississippi Gulf Coast with this Q&A, a total of 25 trivia questions as a follow-up to the last Gulf Coast Chronicles that offered 25 different questions. Some are easy, some are tough and some are just plain fun to learn a factoid you might have known but forgotten as the region sweeps into the 21st Century of change, losses and new stuff.

The answers are found below:

1. Bay St. Louis in 1965 was the main location for the filming of a Hollywood movie, still remembered today, especially with the recent death of a lead actor. Who were the three main actors and what is the name of the movie?

2. The first U.S. heavyweight championship fight took place on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in February 1882, in front of the waterfront Barnes Hotel. Who were the two famous fighters and where would the hotel be located today?

3. Tung trees, whose oil was once popular in paint manufacturing, were a profitable industry on the Coast until Hurricane Camille destroyed many of them in 1969. The state agriculturalists researched and discovered a fruit that would grow well here to replace that lost industry. What is the fruit?

4. Our Coast has a history of 11 lighthouses on its shores and islands. In what town was the first one built in 1831?

5. On what island was the first island lighthouse constructed in the same year of 1831?

6. What was the name of the morning newspaper started in 1974 whose reporting staff covered the entire Coast?

7. The completion and expansion of the U.S. Capitol building in the 1850s in Washington D.C., was under the supervision of what Mississippian who retired in Biloxi?

8. Name the birthplace of “Margaritaville” singer Jimmy Buffet, who died in 2023.

9. The nationally recognized Gulf Coast Military Academy existed from 1912 to 1976. What is that waterfront land used for today?

10. Name the internationally recognized black sculptor and Bay St. Louis native whose “American Eagle: The Seal” is prominently displayed above an entrance to the Wilbur J. Cohen Building in Washington, D.C. The nearly 10-foot art was originally designed for the Social Security Administration but the 1940 building has been used for other Federal departments.

11. What Biloxian holds the national high school record for no-hit games?

12. Did any Mississippians die aboard the USS Arizona during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941?

13. What was the first structure in Mississippi, located on the Coast, to receive the American Institute of Architects’ coveted Honor Award for Design Excellence?

14. What is a Picayune?

15. Mississippi National Guardsmen called to the Coast were ordered to shelter in place here until after Hurricane Camille passed, but stories of their heroic rescues in the midst of the 1969 Cat-5 storm. How many were decorated for extraordinary behavior?

16. Where and when did the famous entertainer and stripper Gypsy Rose Lee perform in South Mississippi?

17. For whom is Jackson County, formed in 1812, named?

18. For whom is Hancock County, also formed in 1812, named?

19. What Coast county has two county seats?

20. What town proudly called itself “The Pickle Capital of the World?”

21. What town proudly called itself “The Radish Capital of the World?”

22. To win the presence of a military base in the early throes of WWII, what did Biloxi give up and what is the name of the base?

23. Where did the first McDonald’s hamburger fast-food restaurant open on the Coast and in what decade?

24. Nine ships have been named after Coast cities, most of them products of war. Name the cities, and know that some were repeat names.

25. Why do I include six counties, and not just the three coastline counties of Harrison, Hancock and Jackson, when I refer to the Mississippi Gulf Coast?

Answers

1. Robert Redford, Natalie Wood and Charles Bronson starred in “This Property is Condemned.”

2.The bare-knuckle fight between John L. Sullivan and favorite Paddy Ryan was won by Sullivan in a 9th round knock-out. Hotel location was present-day Gulfport, just west of Courthouse Road and U.S. 90. Fights were illegal in Louisiana and New Orleans threatened arrests, so they headed to Mississippi.

3. Blueberries

4. Pass Christian, built on the corner of Hiern Avenue, auctioned as surplus in 1882 and dismantled.

5. Cat Island

6. The South Mississippi Sun or just The Sun. In 1985 The Sun officially combined with its sister evening paper called The Daily Herald. The daily front-page masthead became The Sun Herald.

7. Jefferson Davis, then U.S Secretary of War, oversaw the work under President Franklin Pierce.

8. Pascagoula

9. The expansive Armed Forces Retirement Home in Gulfport off U.S. 90

10. Richmond Barthe, renowned Harlem Renaissance artist who died in 1989, created the eagle stone relief. Unfortunately, the future of this and dozens of other irreplaceable New Deal art is uncertain as the Trump Administration has listed the historic Cohen Building for destruction or sale.

11. Life magazine wrote about Chris Taranto’s phenomenal record in 1961 when a senior at Notre Dame High School. Taranto’s record of six straight no-hitters stood for 28 years until Tom Engle of Ohio tied the mark in 1989. But Taranto’s record of nine no-hitters for the season and 12 career no-hitters remain national records.

12. Yes. At least 11, including Burnis L. Bond from Wiggins, are listed on the Arizona Casualty List. The Mississippi Armed Forces Museum reports 30 known Mississippians were among the 2,390 who died that day at Pearl Harbor.

13. Pinecote Pavilion at the Crosby Auditorium in Picayune.

14. If you said answered a coin, a newspaper or a city, you’d be correct. The low-value Spanish coin in the colonial South is also a New Orleans-based newspaper that often covers the Coast. Its owner in the 1880s, Eliza Jane Poitevent Nicholson (aka Pearl Rivers), grew up around coastal Hobolochitto. When the railroad came residents sought a more memorable name and gave her the honor of naming the community after her newspaper.

15. Yes, 21. Fourteen received the Army Commendation Medal and seven received the Soldier’s Medal, the nation’s highest peace-time decoration.

16. At Camp Shelby during WWII, in January 1944. Today this National Guard and Reservist Joint Forces Training Site is south of Hattiesburg.

17. Histories tell us Andrew Jackson, 7th U.S. President and hero of Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812 that lasted nearly three years. Why some wonder about the origins is because he wasn’t president until 1829 and his New Orleans battle heroics hadn’t happened when the county formed in December 1812. His aggression with Native Indians helped open the South to American settlement.

18. John Hancock, American Founding Father and first signer of Declaration of Independence.

19. Harrison County with both Biloxi and Gulfport named as county seats.

20. Wiggins. Stone County soil grows cucumbers well and the town at one time boasted the biggest pickle processing plant in the country. The American Pickle & Canning Co., later known as Brown-Miller Co. and Beatrice Foods, operated from 1912 until the 1980s.

21. Long Beach. As virgin yellow pine forests were chopped down for lumber export, farmers realized the cut-over lands grew cooler weather vegetables well. In early 20th Century the region became famous for its “Long Beach Red” radish the shape of a carrot, popular in Northern beer halls.

22. Biloxi forfeited its favorite playground, the 832-acre oak-laden Naval Reserve Park created in the 1830s as a tree reserve for the Federal Navy fleet. The park had an air field, golf course, zoo, baseball stadium where Washington Senators did spring training. Today it ‘s Keesler Air Force Base.

23. Pass Road in Biloxi near Keesler AFB in the 1960s. 1962 to be exact.

24. Gulfport and Pass Christian each had two ships named after them, and Pascagoula had three. Biloxi and Escatawpa each had one.

25. The late Charles L. Sullivan -- historian, book author and college professor – drummed in my head that our Coast is made up of the Blue Sea (the three coastline counties already mentioned) and The Green Sea, which is the pineywoods counties of Pearl River, Stone and George. Together these six counties make a little recognized stubby panhandle for Mississippi.

Kat Bergeron, an award-winning veteran reporter and feature writer who specializes in Gulf Coast history and sense of place, is retired from the Sun Herald. She writes this Gulf Coast Chronicles column as a freelance correspondent. Reach her at:

BergeronKat@gmail.com

Or, at Southern Possum Tales, P.O. Box 33, Barboursville, VA 22923