Hancock County, Mississippi - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

My Commentary: Once you cross the bridge over to Bay Saint Louis, the bustle of the rest of the Mississippi Gulf Coast seems to disappear. The city and the county seems to be a little more laid back, even for Mississippians. It's just a great area to come over and explore.

Hancock County is the southernmost county of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 43,929.[1] Its county seat is Bay St. Louis. The county is named for Founding Father John Hancock.

Hancock County is part of the Gulfport–Biloxi-Pascagoula, MS Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is situated along the Gulf of Mexico and the state line with Louisiana. The area is home to the John C. Stennis Space Center, NASA's largest rocket engine test facility.

The county was severely damaged from Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, which caused a huge storm surge and catastrophic damage.

This area of Mississippi was inhabited by indigenous peoples at the time of European colonization; the French were the first settlers and traders in the area. They imported African slaves as laborers, and in time a Creole class of free people of color developed.

After the United States conducted Indian Removal in the 1830s, more Protestant Americans migrated into this area, but it retained French and African Catholic influences. Located on the Gulf Coast, the county was regularly hit by hurricanes but its residents learned to handle these incidents.

In 2005, the county was the scene of the final landfall of the eye of Hurricane Katrina, and its communities and infrastructure suffered some of the most intense damage inflicted by that storm. Over the entire 7-mile (11 km) beach front, not one building or home was left intact. Nearly the entire first block off the beach was destroyed for the entire 7-mile (11 km) stretch.

Homes as far inland as 10 miles (16 km) were flooded by the historic storm surge, which occurred during a full moon high tide. All rivers and waterways were inundated by the surge. Highway 603 south from Interstate 10 was completely submerged, and the Highway 90 - Bay St. Louis Bridge was left looking like a stack of dominoes.

Houses were floated off their foundations. In Waveland and Bay St. Louis, some homes were stranded atop the railroad tracks and others in the middle of streets. Towns like Pearlington, Waveland, Bay St. Louis, Diamondhead, and Kiln suffered catastrophic damage.

- Hancock County Wikipedia Page

Wikipedia Url: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
To post a visit log to this waymark you need to visit and write about the actual physical location. Any pictures you take at the location would be great, as well.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.