Gulf Hills

History

"Bayou Puerto" is the ancestral name for the area that is now Gulf Hills. This small, isolated, primarily Roman Catholic settlement came into existence in the mid-19th century, and encompassed for the most part the south half of Section 12, all of Section 13, the east half of Section 14, and the northeast quarter of Section 24, all of T7S-R9W, Jackson County, Mississippi. The majority of the people of the Bayou Puerto sector made their livelihoods from the sea and forest. The sea provided fish, crustaceans, and mollusks, as well as the medium for travel and trade. Sylvan dwellers cut timber and light wood and made charcoal. Agriculturally, there were some citrus orchards and viticulture, but large traditional farms were nonexistence. Families cultivated vegetable gardens to supplement their high protein diet consisting primarily of seafood, fowl, and game. After 1900, there was a marked decrease in charcoal making. Virtually every male resident of Bayou Puerto in 1900 was employed in the seafood industry. Only a few Blacks were still producing charcoal, probably for local consumption. An event which permanently changed the history and culture of Bayou-Puerto and St. Martin occurred as a result of the land boom of the mid-1920s. A group of investors from Chicago and New York enamored with the natural beauty, temperate climate, and proximity via rail to the "snow birds" of the Midwest, chose an area in eastern St. Martin along and at the mouth of Old Fort Bayou and Bayou Puerto, to build a winter resort. It was called "Gulf Hills" because small tributaries and intermittent streams flowing into Old Fort Bayou and Bayou Puerto have dissected the topography in the area. Harvey W. Braniger (1875–1953), a native of Morning Sun, Iowa, and developer of Ivanhoe at Chicago,…

Geography

Gulf Hills is located along the Mississippi Gulf Coast at (30.434065, -88.825794), just south of Interstate 10. It is bordered by St. Martin (a census-designated place) to the west, Latimer (a census-designated place) to the north and the city of Ocean Springs to the south. Pascagoula is to the southeast via U.S. Route 90, and Biloxi is to the southwest, across Biloxi Bay. According to the United States Census Bureau, the Gulf Hills CDP has a total area of , of which are land and , or 6.03%, are water.

Most-observed species

• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  10,029
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  8,711
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  7,880
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  7,196
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  6,975
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  6,713
• Laughing Gull

  Leucophaeus atricilla (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  6,167
• Osprey

  Pandion haliaetus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  6,032

Most recent

• M 2.6 — 2012-11-10
  16 km S of Dauphin Island, Alabama
• M 3.5 — 2011-02-18
  22 km SSE of Dauphin Island, Alabama