Sun Herald newspaper has covered the Mississippi Coast’s biggest moments for 136 years

The Sun Herald turns 136 today with its Oct. 4, 1884, birth as The Biloxi Herald.

In succeeding decades the newspaper has gone through as many changes, expansions, contractions and modernizations as has the six-county Mississippi Coast community that it covers.

When only four years into publication, the Wilkes family that started the newspaper with $500 and a very old cranky hand press was forced to start over. All was lost in a downtown fire. No known editions or microfilm exist from 1884 to 1888 to learn what those first newspapers reported.

But succeeding editions tell the Coast story in more detail than any history book could. Local newspapers are the preservers of a community’s past and present — the good and bad of it, the happy and sad of it. In 14 years, more than 1,800 local newspapers have folded, leaving local news voids in U.S. communities. The Sun Herald today launches into its 137^th year determined to remain a local media source for its readers, whether in print, online or whatever presentation method the future might dream up.

So how has the Coast changed since 1884? By perusing microfilm or using modern digital search tools, we can answer that. Such research is time consuming, so on our birthday we do it for you. 136 is not normally an anniversary for large-scale reflection, but it seems so with so much change under way.

Each event or observation in this timeline was reported by this newspaper, but not everything can be shoe-horned into one timeline.

Clip this out, print it for future reading or take a quick mental scan to be amazed at how the Coast and its mainstay newspaper have developed in tandem.

1800s

1884: Coast population, 22,000. First truck-farm produce leaves Scott’s Station (Long Beach). Capt. William H. Hardy completes NO&NE railroad, bridging Lake Pontchartrain to Coast previously reached by sail, steamer or horse. Hardy soon takes control of troubled Gulf & Ship Island RR and creates Gulfport.

1885: In December a New Orleans world’s fair, the Cotton Centennial Exposition, opens and the Herald prints its first special Coast section to distribute at fair.

1886: Newspaper ad for Biloxi shows George Ohr busy: “ Pottery! Geo. E. Ohr. Ware Made To Order In All Shapes & Sizes: Flower pots, drain tile, water jugs, vases & Artistic Ware.”

1887: The Artesian Ice Co. begins operations in Biloxi, with ice increasing range and cruise time for local fishing fleets. Pass Christian boasts three of the Coast’s largest hotels but only 2,200 residents.

1888: Government moves Ship Island Quarantine Station to Chandeleur Island. White Winged Queen races begin. Waveland becomes town. Fire sweeps Biloxi, destroys Herald plant. At Mississippi City Courthouse, Jefferson Davis gives last public speech, “The past is dead,” encouraging Southerners to reconcile.

1889: Jefferson Davis, 80, residing at Beauvoir, dies in December and his Biloxi estate eventually houses aging Civil War veterans.

1890: First seasonal workers from Baltimore, called Bohemians, arrive to work in seafood canneries. Pearl River County is created, partly out of Hancock County.

1891: First known Mardi Gras parade on Coast rolls in Biloxi with seven floats.

1892: Ocean Springs, dating to colonial times, is incorporated.

1893: E.G. Burklin, recent Missouri arrival to Biloxi, establishes an electric-light plant and horse-drawn trolley. October hurricane does more damage (100+ boats) and kills more Coast people (100+) than any previous storm.

1894: Mullet, known as Biloxi or Bay Bacon, remain plentiful and thrifty house-keepers “salt them down.“ Downtown Biloxi and the Pot-Ohr-E burn in another bad fire.

1895: Capt. Joseph T. Jones, Pennsylvania oil millionaire, takes over completion of G&SI Railroad in Gulfport. Sixty percent of Coast livestock freezes when February mercury “drops below Cairo.”

1896: The Peoples Bank opens in Biloxi. Travel writer describes Bay St. Louis and Waveland as practically one city of 3,000. Mississippi City, as Harrison County seat wields influence for its size, 300 residents. Biloxi renames its section of Pass Christian Street (Pass Road) as Howard Ave.

1897: Coast establishes quarantines during bad yellow fever epidemic. Coast rivalry baseball leagues, both men’s and women, popular.

1898: City of Gulfport incorporated.

1899: Hancock Bank opens in Bay St. Louis. First Coast telephone exchange operates in Bay St. Louis, soon followed by Pass Christian. Sustained freeze, called Blizzard of ‘99, lets people walk on Sound and freezes off cow ears. Ed Barq Sr. permanently moves from New Orleans to Biloxi, buys existing soda manufactory from Martin Loescher.

1900s

1900: Coast population, 49,401, but coastal counties will soon be split to form pineywoods counties. Biloxi loses 90 buildings to downtown fire, including the Catholic church.

1901: All Coast cities offer residents public phones and electricity; occasional automobile appears. August hurricane memorable because, for irst time, sparking electric wires dance in streets. Beach bathers, unwilling to wait for sex-segregated bath houses to be rebuilt, expose themselves in swimsuits.

1902: Golfing craze hits Coast when ladies and gentlemen are seen making “curious gyrations with crooked sticks.” First cargo ship uses newly dug channel and arrives at the port of Gulfport, soon titled Yellow Pine Export Capital of the World.

1903: Under Capt. Jones heavy influence, Harrison County moves its courthouse to 24th Avenue, Gulfport. Jones also opens Great Southern Hotel.

1904: Biloxi has eclipsed Baltimore as Seafood Capital of the World. Other Coast towns also have bustling factories.

1905: Long Beach incorporated and soon claims title, Radish Capital of the World, created from cut-over pinelands.

1906: September hurricane eats one mile of Horn Island, sets a record for size and longevity, kills 100 people, destroys fishing fleets and releases 10,000 diamond-back terrapins from Moran’s Biloxi turtle farm.

1907: King’s Daughters Hospital, Coast’s first hospital, opens in Gulfport. Woods of Point Cadet cleared as more Slavic immigrants move to Coast for seafood work.

1908: Forerunner of Gulf Coast Carnival Association forms to organize Mardi Gras.

1909: Deadly September hurricane erodes natural beaches and raises first call for a seawall.

1910: North Jackson County breaks away to help form George County.

1910s

1911: A Civil War monument, thought to be first on Coast, is dedicated at Harrison County Courthouse.

1912: The Bernardino, Coast’s first trawler, sounds death knell of fishing schooners. Harrison County agricultural high opens in Perkinston, paving way for community college system. Gulf Coast Military Academy opens.

1913: Yellow pine lumber boom peaks after more than half of South Mississippi’s forests are felled. Ty Cobb trains in Gulfport, signaling an era that lasts until the 1930s for baseball teams (Washington Senators, N.Y. Giants, Baltimore Orioles) to train here. President Woodrow Wilson spends Christmas in Pass Christian.

1914: Lumber and seafood industries nose-dive with World War I interruption of European trade. “Let the Pecan Tree Take the Place of the Pine” becomes popular slogan; many paper-shell varieties perfected locally.

1915: Mosquitoes and killer hurricane sound death knell to “Coney Island of the South,” a Deer Island amusement park. Last horse-drawn hearse of O Keefe family’s pre-Civil War livery and funeral business is smashed by train in Ocean Springs. Mississippi Coast Amateur Baseball League forms.

1916: Stone County created from northern Harrison. Lumber mills reactivate and new shipyards fill demands of WWI allies. A record 200,000 pecan trees shipped from Ocean Springs nurseries. July storm batters Coast and pineywoods for 16 hours, leveling crops, forests and rebuilt piers from 1915 blow.

1917: President Wilson asks Congress for war declaration against Germany and workers at Mississippi Centennial Exposition site raise 50 flags. U.S. enters World War I on April 6, and Centennial site becomes Navy training station in Gulfport.

1918: Louisiana Cajuns work in seafood factories because Bohemian laborers stay East to work WWI armament factories. George E. Ohr, self-styled “Greatest Art Potter in the World,” dies of probable lung cancer.

1919: Mississippi is first U.S. state to ratify Prohibition but also passed state prohibition 11 years earlier. Coast creates booming rum-running business and whiskey stills in pineywoods. Gulfport gets first cargo of bananas. Gulf Park College opens for women in Long Beach.

1920s

1920: Ernest and Ruth Riemann move to Gulfport and establish a funeral home, holding 13 funerals the first year.

1921: Daily Herald has 2,744 subscribers and purchases its first automobile for the circulation manager. More homes built in Gulfport than in any other Mississippi town except Jackson. At least 57 Pascagoula buildings burn in a downtown fire.

1922: Daily Herald Building opens in Gulfport, complete with new printing plant; Herald continues Biloxi office.

1923: To thwart rum-runners using waterways, railroads and islands, construction begins on Back Bay Coast Guard base.

1924: Major seawall construction begins in coastal counties, with Harrison County’s “world’s longest concrete seawall” taking four years. Mississippi Power Co. is born out of old Gulfport & Mississippi Coast Traction Co., which operated a generating plant and trolley. Newspaper puts screen on Gulfport’s Herald Square to show election results.

1925: Highway 90 along the beach becomes U.S. 90, part of Florida-to-San Diego national highway system. It encompasses Old Spanish Trail, a tourism ploy envisioned a decade earlier.

1926: Isle of Caprice (12 miles offshore with history of disappearing), opens as gambling, drinking and recreation resort to thwart mainland laws. Capt. Pete Skrmetta uses fishing schooner to ferry partiers to island.

1927: Grand Coast hotels in heyday with opening of Pine Hills, Edgewater Gulf, the Tivoli and enlarging of Buena Vista and White House.

1928: Shearwater Pottery opens in Ocean Springs on the Anderson family compound. Radio arrives on the Coast in as WGCM. Seawalls in three coastal counties completed. Bridge built across Bay of St. Louis.

1929: First Coast blessings of fishing fleet held in August in Biloxi and D’Iberville. Great Depression brings end to Coast real estate and tourism booms; businesses and big hotels go bankrupt as the so-named “Gold Coast” loses its shine.

1930s

1930: Bridges finally span every river and bay between New Orleans and Mobile, making possible for the first time ferry-less travel across Coast.

1931: The tung industry, Chinese monopoly for centuries, takes hold in South Mississippi’s cut-over timber lands. Isle of Caprice begins disappearing, first because of Depression, then natural erosion.

1932: With lumber and wool exports dwindling, Port of Gulfport turns to banana imports in bigger way. Last race of White-Winged Queens indicates sails are out and diesel-powered luggers in.

1933: National Prohibition repeal adds to Coast’s Depression misery by ending national standing as an illegal liquor supplier; although black-market liquor sales continues. Skrmetta family launches ferry service to Ship Island.

1934: Recognition that Coast is military site grows as Coast Guard base opens at Point Cadet with seaplane ramp and hangar.

1935: Coastal sheep industry, lucrative in first two decades when 5 million roamed the pineywoods, fizzles with passage of open stock laws.

1936: Most fishing schooners replaced by motors after “motor harvesting” of oysters becomes legal.

1937: President F.D. Roosevelt visits for second time, following earlier visits by cousin Teddy and presidents Truman.

1938: Robert Ingalls, lured to Pascagoula by balance-agriculture-with- industry funds, opens on a WWI shipyard site. Dantzler Moss Point Mill, Coast’s largest, saws its last log, indicating death of virgin lumber industry. Pulp mill continues as International Paper Co.

1939: Ocean Springs holds first 1699 Iberville landing re-enactment.

1940s

1940: Selective Service Act lottery, enacted by Roosevelt at outbreak of WWII in Europe, picks Dewey Cruthirds as Gulfport’s first.

1941: Officers and men set up tents on Keesler Field in Biloxi in June and 12,000 construction workers get busy. At bombing of Pearl Harbor, Coast tung, shipbuilding, paper and other industries switch strategies to war goods.

1942: Navy picks 1,150-acre Gulfport site for Seabees. Another military base opens, Gulfport Field Army Air Corps. Merchant Marines trained in Pass Christian. Coast homeowners benefit by renting rent rooms to military families.

1943: Ed Barq, at his death, leaves a national root beer legacy. Females are hired to weld ships at Ingalls.

1944: Plans announced for commissioning ceremony at Gulfport for USS Gulfport.

1945: Big government rivals Coast seafood, tourism and forestry. Many war-born installations and industries remain after WWII as U.S. turns to peacetime military preparedness. Neil Simon’s stationing at Keesler AFB leads to his later play and movie, “Biloxi Blues.”

1946: Army Corps of Engineers finishes 1,166-mile Intracoastal Waterway six miles offshore in the Mississippi Sound; channels and canals to it create Coast industrial revolution in oil, space, engineering, fabrication and chemicals.

1947: A deadly September hurricane demolishes waterfronts and teaches new generations about modern destruction. New shrimp “bottoms” discovered south of barrier islands revive dwindling industry.

1948: In Gulfport, Milk of Magnesia plant opens and Joseph W. Milner Stadium is dedicated. Bay St. Louis Little Theater is constructed on Boardman Avenue from two war-surplus Seabee barracks.

1949: The iconic Magnolia State Historic Markers begin appearing at historic Coast sites. Post-WWII Pascagoula-Moss Point rises to preeminent port and heavy industrial status.

1950s

1950: Coastal population, 127,365 (11,891 in Hancock, 84,073 in Harrison, 31,401 in Jackson). Gulf Coast Research Lab opens in Ocean Springs.

1951: Simultaneous construction of 300-foot sloping beach to replace eroded sand and widening of U.S. 90 as first U.S. four-lane, coast-to-coast military superhighway boosts tourism. Historically wide-open but illegal gambling forced underground after anti-crimer Sen. Estes Kefauver exposes it.

1952: 700 lots for a new Gulfport neighborhood called Bayou View carved from WWII-era Gulfport Field. Wartime airport upgraded for public use.

1953: Ground broken for Memorial Hospital at Gulfport.

1954: National Guard training facility at Gulfport airport completed.

1955: Elvis Presley does first of six concerts on Coast.

1956: Tourism boom sprouts cottage motels and nightclubs that draw national names.

1957: Lee Koplin, Florida genius of roadside pop art, builds miniature golf course in Biloxi with trademark dinosaur. After a game melee, Biloxi and Gulfport High are forbidden to play each other for 11 years.

1958: Joe Brown, owner of Horseshoe Club in Las Vegas, buys Broadwater Beach, which his wife later turns into Coast flagship hotel.

1959: Biloxi physician Gilbert Mason Sr. holds state’s first civil disobedience when blacks stage a wade-in on segregated beach near Biloxi Lighthouse. (Two more wade-ins and court suits follow.) Ingalls launches USS Blueback, its first submarine.

1960s

1960: Harrison County voters approve bond issue for Harrison County Waterway; Dredges cut more waterways from it to Intracoastal Waterway in other counties.

1961: From 30 candidates, Hancock County selected as NASA’s largest moon-rocket test facility. Rockets can be built in New Orleans, tested here and shipped to Cape Canaveral by Intracoastal Waterway.

1962: WLOX-TV, with studios in Buena Vista Hotel, hits airwaves. Mary Mahoney opens Old French House Restaurant. Black-market liquor taxes paid to state, sheriffs and other officials make some salaries higher than the U.S. president’s.

1963: First regional shopping center, Edgewater Mall, opens September midway between Gulfport and Biloxi. Smaller shopping centers appear across the Coast.

1964: Mississippi’s first black children to enter previously all-white schools Biloxi do so peacefully in August in Biloxi. All, including Gilbert Mason Jr., were first-graders whose parents sued for integration.

1965: Hurricane Betsy gives glancing blow. Widening U.S. 49 to four lanes begins. Interstate-10 construction begins. Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College divides into three campuses. Famous Jackson County artist Walter I. Anderson dies of lung cancer. Bay St. Louis site for Hollywood’s “This Property is Condemned,” staring Natalie Wood and Robert Redford.

1966: For first time Coast blacks and whites sit at same large music venue when Dick Clark’s Where the Action Is comes to town. Co-mingling is repeated at an appearance of James Brown. Drinking liquor becomes legal on Coast. Second stage of Apollo Saturn V rocket tested at NASA.

1967: After performing Gus Stevens Supper Club in Biloxi, Jayne Mansfied dies in late-night tragedy on chemical -fogged U.S. 90 in Louisiana.

1968: Harrison County Sheriff Luther Patton axes slot machines sized in Biloxi raid. (Later fined $120,000 for for gambling kick-backs.) Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules Coast beaches open to all. Daily Herald sold by Wilkes to family-run State Record Co. of South Carolina, which creates Gulf Publishing Co.

1969: Hurricane Camille, strongest 20th-century storm to hit U.S., kills at least 132 on Coast, leaves 40 more missing, causes $6.8 billion in damage, and proves the human spirit can rebuild. The beleaguered Herald staff misses no publication. Commuter train travel to New Orleans ends after nearly a century.

1970s

1970: Seafood gets a boost from low-interest government loans; that, coupled with larger boats and new technology, makes shrimping a year-round business, eventually causing over-fishing. Biloxi native, Apollo-13 Astronaut Fred Haise, flies to the moon and carries miniature Herald with him. Herald opens new plant on DeBuys Road to lead Coast rebuilding.

1971: Crowds cheer when first blast fails to bring down the Roaring ‘20s-era Edgewater Gulf Hotel for a mall expansion.

1972: University of Southern Mississippi buys 1920s-era campus of Gulf Park College as a regional campus.

1973: Harrison County voters reject $6 million bond issue for new courthouse. (Fire two years later creates necessity.) State Record Co. launches morning South Mississippi Sun to accompany its historic evening Daily Herald. Reported alien abduction in Pascagoula makes national headlines.

1974: Contracts signed for building $16 million U.S. Naval Retirement Home in Gulfport.

1975: I-10 in Harrison and Hancock counties completed, but Jackson County part is held up for seven years because of sandhill crane concerns. Biloxi, Pascagoula and Gulfport get urban renewal funds to revitalize fading downtowns. For Biloxi, it’s the $22 million Vieux Marche project.

1976: Mississippi Audubon Society initiates a “Nest in Peace” on beachfront for endangered least tern. William Carey College in Hattiesburg, buys former military academy in Gulfport.

1977: Gulf Islands National Seashore opens in Ocean Springs and on several barrier islands. Coast Coliseum & Convention Center opens to Charley Pride instead of Elvis Presley, the scheduled performer, who died. The 17-county Biloxi Diocese is carved out of the Natchez Diocese and headed by first U.S. black diocesan bishop. Old oaks fall on Pass Road in Biloxi/Gulfport to widened to four lanes.

1978: Vietnamese refugees lured by fishing, factory jobs and a Catholic resettlement program. Former President Nixon warmly received, despite country’s attitude of him, because Coast remembers his Camille-rebuilding help.

1979: DuPont dedicates DeLisle titanium dioxide plant. With volunteerism and private-public bucks to lure it, Miss USA pageant is staged at Coast Coliseum for four years.

1980s

1980: Singing River Mall opens. 4,000+ gather on beach at Edgewater Mall with “Thanks Canada” signs in response to help with U.S. hostage in Iran.

1981: Coast’s last all-black school, North Gulfport Elementary, becomes part of another integrated school. National financial recession worsens on Coast because of Louisiana oil bust.

1982: A fire at Biloxi jail kills 29, and Illinois drifter accused of setting it will be acquitted.

1983: Gulfport annexes Brentwood, Bayou Oaks and Fernwood subdivisions. The “Pickle Capital of the World” Stone County economy plummets when 71-year-old pickle factory closes.

1984: Commuter train temporarily returns to take folks to New Orleans World’s Fair. J.L. Scott Marine Education Center & Aquarium opens in Biloxi. Harrison County Sheriff Leroy Hobbs sentenced 20 years, pleads guilty to cocaine racketeering charges.

1985: Elena’s 110-mph winds buffet Jackson County, causing $352 million ($847 million today) damage. Navy announces Pascagoula as a home port. Renaissance of Old Town in Bay St. Louis begins. State Record Co. combines morning Sun and afternoon Herald into The Sun Herald, launched on the newspaper’s 101 birthday.

1986: Turtle excluder devices required for shrimpers. Seafood packers, facing depleted catches, begin big-time processing of imported seafood. Coast Guard base at Point Cadet becomes Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum. Gautier incorporates as city. Sun Herald sold to Knight Ridder, second-largest U.S. newspaper chain.

1987: Harrison County replenishes eroded beach, and sand dunes encouraged with planting of sea grasses. Murders of Judge Vincent Sherry and wife Margaret in Biloxi linked to Dixie Mafia, and Pete Halat, who will become mayor, eventually jailed as conspirator.

1988: D’Iberville becomes a city, thwarting Biloxi annexation efforts. I-110 and the loop open.

1989: First of replica Old Biloxi schooners, named after banker Glenn L. Swetman, sails. Larkin Smith, Coast’s promising shining star in Congress, dies in plane crash.

1990s

1990: Voters approve dockside gambling in Hancock County, but defeat it in Harrison and Jackson counties.

1991: Walter Anderson Museum of Art opens in Ocean Springs.

1992: 57.4 percent of Harrison County voters approve dockside gambling. August, Isle of Capri riverboat is first casino to open. In September, Casino Magic opens in the Bay St. Louis.

1993: Gulfport annexes North Gulfport and Orange Grove, stealing title of the state’s second-largest city from Biloxi. U.S. 49 corridor begins phenomenal retail growth.

1994: George E. Ohr Arts & Cultural Center opens in the hometown of the Mad Potter.

1995: Keesler and Seabee bases survive congressional military base closings and grow bigger.

1996: Coast loses its storm icon, Harrison County Civil Defense Director Wade Guice, credited with saving lives in Camille and later storms.

1997: Biloxi casinos generate 35 percent of state’s $2.2 billion gross gaming revenues. Building boom to house Coast population explosion underway. Urban renewal canopies torn down to revitalize Biloxi. Gulfport also undergoes rejuvenation.

1998: Iconic Biloxi Lighthouse celebrates 150 years. Hurricane Georges strikes Sept. 28, killing none on Coast but causing $310 million damage. Jet service, taken away in the recession, is restored in October. Jefferson Davis Presidential Library opens at Beauvoir.

1999: 1699 Tricentennial becomes Coastwide, year-long 300th birthday party. Opening of Beau Rivage in Biloxi brings Coast casinos to 11.. Arguments continue for need for a north-south and east-west roads to hold the new traffic and evacuations. Twenty-one Mardi Gras parades now roll across the Coast.

2000s

2000: Three-county Coast population, 350,000, though number thought low. First Black Spring Break comes to Coast. MGM Grand buys Beau Rivage in Biloxi. Northrop Grumman proposes acquires Litton Industries, owner of Ingalls.

2001: After Sept. 11, security tightens around USS Cole docked for Ingalls repairs; National Guard begins security details at Gulfport-Biloxi Airport; Local families mourn loss of loved ones in New York and Washington in terrorists plane crashes. Harrison County zones 4,800-acre Tradition as a master planned community for homes, education and medical advancements.

2002: U.S. Sen. Trent Lott of Pascagoula resigns as Senate majority leader after being accused of racially insensitive remarks at 100th birthday for Sen. Strom Thurmond. Community debates appropriateness of Confederate battle flag in public historic flag displays. Tropical Storm Isidore floods more than 3,000 homes in Hancock County.

2003: Marine Corps 2nd Lt. Therrel Shane Childers, 1990 Harrison Central graduate, is among first U.S. combat casualties in Iraq. Biloxi debates whether high-rise developments will make Keesler vulnerable in next base closings. Pascagoula opens $50 million high-rise bridge.

2004: Sept. 14 evacuation for Hurricane Ivan sends thousands northbound, clogs roads, quadruples trip times and causes many to question wisdom of evacuating. Jackson County approves $7.1 million incentives for a Northrop Grumman drone helicopter facility. Rare Christmas snow.

2005: Hurricane Katrina, America’s worst natural disaster, devastates entire Mississippi coastline, extensive island damage, kills 200+ here and causes Coast cities and tens of thousands of home owners to return to drawing boards.

2006: Former Pres. Carter and wife build Habitat for Humanity homes. First assumed lost in Katrina, 17 Marine Life dolphins rescued. Federal investigation into Harrison County Jail death of Jessie Lee Williams Jr. says he was beaten without justification. Sun Herald and other Knight Ridder newspapers bought by McClatchy, 136-year-old newspaper company. Sun Herald staff awarded top Pulitzer, the Gold Medal, for Katrina coverage.

2007: $266 million Bay St. Louis and $338 million Biloxi Bay replacement bridges reopen. South Mississippi legislators coax lawmakers to vote for state wind pool bailout to help rising insurance. Work begins again at ravaged Frank Gehry-designed new Orh museum nearly finished before Katrina.

2008: Gulfport bans smoking in public places. Public is skeptic about proposal for petroleum reserve in Richton salt dome. National Great Recession strikes, slowing Coast Katrina recovery.

2009: Coast tourism, retail, real estate suffer from worldwide economic slowdown. Elections bring new mayors in Pascagoula, Gautier, Moss Point, Gulfport, D’Iberville, Bay St. Louis. U.S. 90 hurricane repairs complete. Ship Island ranger station and visitors center built back. Federally funded city and county construction to replace other Katrinaed buildings and infrastructure begins in earnest.

2010s

2010: Louisiana BP oil spill fouls local beaches, swamps and islands, causes massive cleanup, hurts seafood and spawns lawsuits. PBS “Antique Roads Show” comes to Coast Coliseum. Ohr-O’Keefe Museum returns to its mostly rebuilt beachfront campus. Biloxi Lighthouse opens again and its image graces state car tags.

2011: Hotel Markham, built in the Roaring ‘20s as a Gulfport apartment hotel, is listed among Mississippi’s top endangered historic sites. Salvation Army’s $16 million, Ray and Joan Kroc Center opens in Biloxi. Golden Nugget announces it will acquire the Isle casino.

2012: Nearly 90 Coast WWII veterans take first Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., more to follow. City of Diamondhead is created in Hancock County. Infinity Science Center opens near NASA.

2013: Department of Marine Resources officials indicted. Tourism goes regional with creation of Mississippi Gulf Coast Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau. Long-closed White House Hotel and White Pillars restaurant in Biloxi under restoration. USM reopens Gulf Coast campus in Long Beach.

2014: New Biloxi Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum opens on Point Cadet. Bay St. Louis opens new harbor, spurring expanded restaurant and nightlife.

2015: Scarlet Pearl opens as D’Iberville’s first casino. Biloxi’s long-serving mayor, A.J. Holloway, steps down for health; Andrew “FoFo” Gillich elected. Capt. Louis Skrmetta announces Gulf Islands National Seashore renews contract to ferry passengers another decade. Biloxi Shuckers play first minor league baseball game at $36 million MGM Park.

2016: Stone County marks its centennial. In December gas prices inch back to $2 a gallon after post-Katrina sore. Traditional Christmas boat parades continued in Biloxi, Gulfport and Long Beach.

2017: Pass Christian Historical Society continues its Tour of Homes begun in 1977. Mississippi Gulf Coast Spring Pilgrimage holds its 65th year. By March, MGCCC’s Nursing and Simulation Complex nears completion at Tradition.

2018: USA Today votes Cruisin’ The Coast as best annual car show competition. Tourism is on rise, with hotel room occupancy up 16 percent. New restaurants pop up everywhere to feed tourists and locals. Non-casino Margaritaville Resort in Biloxi announces a $200 million expansion, joining other new Coast family attractions.

2019: 50-year-old Camille Cut filled in on Ship Island. Bonnet Carre Spillway opens for record-setting 143 days, killing seafood, closing beaches. BP settlements continue with Gulf Coast Advisory Restoration Board recommending state legislators approve $85.5 million in proposed economic development.

2020: Coastal and pineywoods population, 497,450 (400,000 for Harrison, Hancock, Jackson.). $96 million Mississippi Aquarium opens in Gulfport. Pandemic affects economy and health, killing 243 in the six counties by late-September.

Kat Bergeron, a veteran feature writer and columnist specializing in Gulf Coast history and sense of place, is retired from the Sun Herald.

This story was originally published October 4, 2020 at 12:00 AM.