Part of Horn Island is up for sale. Could MS barrier island really be developed?
Horn Island, off the coast of Jackson County, is mostly deserted, save for the weekend boaters who tie up there for a swim and the occasional tent campers who follow in the steps of artist Walter Anderson to discover its wild wonders and solitude.
The island was home to the Chemical Warfare Service Quarantine Station during World War II and was used for target practice to test weapons just 10 miles off the Mississippi Coast. Left-behind ordnance was discovered there when workers were cleaning the sand after the BP oil spill in 2010.
Most of the island is owned by the National Park Service and, because it’s only accessible by boat and undeveloped, Horn and nearby Petit Bois islands are protected national wilderness areas.
So how is it that 96 acres of Horn Island are for sale for $25 million?
An advertisement for the property is posted on Facebook and the promotional photos and videos are due out this weekend.
“It’s real,” said Janel Doug Rand, a licensed real estate agent in Florida and Mississippi.
Many private individuals own land on the island, she said, and they collectively listed the property for sale.
Investors are interested
Rand said she posted the for sale notice on several social media sites and she’s had a lot of response from possible investors.
“I have talked to real estate agents in the area,” she said.
She won’t say who the property owners are who are selling their piece of Horn Island. To get specific information, she said, serious buyers will have to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
The island is in Jackson County and is 10 miles long and barely a mile at its widest.
The land for sale is toward the middle. “It goes from north shore to south shore,” she said.
Can it be sold and developed?
Horn is one of the few undeveloped barrier islands along the entire Gulf Coast and in 1978 Congress designated the island as one of only 800 federally-funded designated wilderness areas.
“This affords the islands the highest level of federal protection for public lands under the Wilderness Act of 1964,” The National Park Service website says. “The designation preserves the tangible and intangible qualities of a wilderness area. Without much human activity on the Horn Island, wilderness is able to blossom.”
Calls and emails to the National Park Service have not been returned. So it’s unclear if an investor buys property on Horn Island, whether a home or a commercial project would be allowed there.
Rand said it will be up to the prospective buyer to do due diligence and determine if any development can occur on the island.
Currently anyone can use the island
“Be prepared there is no staff, drinking water, shelter, facilities or communication on the island,” the National Park Service advises those who want to camp on Horn Island.
The island is free for all to use, although there regulations against pets, motorized carts with wheels and glass containers. Fires are allowed below the mean high tide line and campers must bring their own firewood and take any unused firewood and their trash home.
The question is, if it can’t be developed, why would someone pay $25 million for property that they already can use for free?
People are skeptical
Since the ad was posted on Facebook, those commenting on a possible sale of land on Horn Island have been skeptical and questioned her integrity, Rand said.
“Send me proof,” they told Rand, who said she is licensed in Florida and Mississippi and is “very professional.”
She said on her Facebook post, “This is a legal, legitimate listing being marketed through proper commercial real estate channels. As a licensed commercial real estate advisor with over 25 years of experience, I take my reputation and professional standards seriously. While I welcome constructive, fact-based conversations, the defamatory remarks questioning my character and ethics are inappropriate and legally questionable.”
Rand said she was surprised by the negative comments about the sale of land on a barrier island.
“I thought it was exciting,” she said.
Horn Island threats
Possible development is another threat to this slip of island.
The Mississippi River is a conveyor belt, bring litter and fertilizer from the Midwest into the Gulf and out to the barrier islands, the National Park Service says.
The island is only 20 feet above sea level at its highest point, which makes it vulnerable to storm surge and the park service says, “If current trends continue, sea levels will drown the majority of Horn Island by 2100.”
A lawsuit over Horn Island in 1998 went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Six miles of beachfront and 729 acres of the island’s 3,650 acres, were purchased at tax sale in 1950 by Clark Beggerly Sr.
In 1971, when Congress created the Gulf Islands National Seashore. the family, along with “the other 199 owners of Horn Island,” were offered money for their land, an article from the Michael Telleria Medill News Service says.
In 1975, the Beggerlys agreed to sell 626 acres to the government for $156,000, but when the government wanted mineral rights, the Beggerlys withdrew its offer.
In 1982, the Beggerlys settled with the government for $208,000, or less than $300 per acre when the government claimed the family didn’t have clear title to the property, even though a document in the National Archives later was found proving otherwise.
A document discovered in the National Archives in Washington in 1981 showed the Boudreau Grant. Issued on Aug. 1, 1781, by Bernardo de Gavez, then governor of Spanish Louisiana, the grant transferred ownership of Horn Island to Pascagoula widow Catarina Vincenarde Boudreau
in 1991, the Beggerlys sued for $50 million. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against them, saying the statute of limitations on their claim had expired, according to articles in the Sun Herald archives.
“With a lack of wilderness on the mainland, Horn Island is a popular destination for people looking for solitude,” the National Park Service says on its website. “Today, people boat to the island for fishing, camping, birding, or to sit on the shore of a secluded beach.”
The real estate listing, with videos and pictures, will be ready this weekend, Rand said.
This story was originally published May 8, 2025 at 11:17 AM.
