Pascagoula, MS’s, Greenwood Island is no longer an island.  Now days Greenwood Island is a peninsula connected to the mainland between Bayou Cassotte and Bayou Chico.  It is currently a place of heavy industry where offshore oil platforms are refurbished.  Before heavy industry came to Greenwood Island it was ignominiously used as a dog pound and a dumping site for dredging spoil.  Well prior to that, Greenwood Island was a recognized archaeological site of Pre-Columbian native Americans.  The Mississippi Department of Achieves and History tried to have Greenwood Island preserved because of its archeological value but was unable to do so.  Archaeological value could not compete with the petroleum industry’s smoothly orchestrated greed.  Greenwood Island is currently located across the bayou from what will be (as soon as this latest flurry of building is completed)the largest refinery in the country.

Also lost is a little known segment of local history.  This type of thing is repeated over and over across the country in community after community.  Our past is being sacrificed on the altar of progress and avarice.  

During the war with Mexico, President Millard Fillmore decided East Pascagoula had military value and he purchased Greenwood Island and an adjacent tract on the mainland for the purpose of establishing a military post and hospital.  This military installation at East Pascagoula’s Greenwood Island was built.  It covered 100 acres.  It was named Camp Jefferson Davis.  Jefferson Davis was the Secretary of War.  Soldiers who were injured in the war with Mexico received care at the Greenwood Island hospital.  Camp Jefferson Davis had an extensive dock facility.

Camp Jefferson Davis was initially under the command of General David Twiggs.  The unfinished masonry fort on Ship Island the Federals captured (and later completed) early in the Civil War named Fort Massachusetts was originally called Fort Twiggs by the Confederates.

By the mid 1840’s there was a sizeable military presence at Camp Jefferson Davis.  In 1846 a military review was held in honor of General Zachary Taylor, then a candidate for President.  General Taylor had a summer home in East Pascagoula on the site of what is now Pascagoula Beach Park.  A military ball was given for the Camp Jefferson Davis officers following the review.  The ball took place in the McRae Hotel, which was located on the East Pascagoula beach front.  

In September of 1848 a visitor to the McRae Hotel in East Pascagoula stated a full division of soldiers was stationed at the military post on Greenwood Island and that some 50 officers took their meals at the hotel.

Soldiers who died at Camp Jefferson Davis were buried on an adjacent lot.  Excavations by the War Department in 1895, located the remains of men who died at East Pascagoula after their return from Mexico in 1847.

The 1894 session of the National Congress decreed the military hospital on Greenwood Island be deactivated and the property sold.  In 1907 the remains of the veterans buried on Greenwood Island were removed to the national cemetery in Mobile, AL.  However, not all of the interred remains were found.

Some 130 plus years after their interment on Greenwood Island, two coffins were exposed by erosion at what had once been Camp Jefferson Davis. The two partially exposed coffins were found side by side.  These two unknown Mexican War soldiers of Twiggs Brigade were laid to rest with full military honors on Veterans Day, November 11, 1989, in the National Cemetery adjacent to the Biloxi (MS) Veterans Administration Hospital.

Now days, offshore oils rigs sit on what once a military cemetery and prime avian habitat.  Such is progress.  Yes indeed, it is absolutely essential every wide spot in the road have a Super Wal-Mart and a half dozen auto parts stores.  Asphalt has more value than history.

Greetings Curtis,
The Story Of Greenwood Island is just Sad, realy sad.
Dan

Quote :

Curtis Makamson wrote :  Such is progress.  Yes indeed, it is absolutely essential every wide spot in the road have a Super Wal-Mart and a half dozen auto parts stores.  Asphalt has more value than history.

Twenty-five years ago, when I started traveling through Central Virginia on a regular basis; there were a couple of motels and one shopping center at the corner of Route 95 and Route 3 in Fredericksburg. You could travel west on Route 3 and not hit another red light until you reached Route 20, at the Wilderness Battlefield. Now days the Route 3 Corridor is built up all the way to the edge of the Chancellorsville Battlefield. Ten miles of nothing but Wal-Marts and auto parts stores. The Battlefield at Salem Church has been completly swallowed up. Spotsylvania County is now the fasted growing county in Virginia.

I understand the need for growth, but there's lots of land that people didn't bleed on to build houses and shopping centers.  

Curtis,

We can't save it all. That's a cold harsh truth that makes what we can save all that more precious.

About 25 years ago, a number of us were on a dig at a small shipyard that was torched during the War of 1812 fiasco. I had been by this site a number of times, and two of my friends grew up near this spot, yet none of us knew anything about the history of this little piece of swampland. Approximately 30 homes were build along that little piece of shoreline, and I can't help but wonder what some of the residents think when their lawnmowers connect with a piece of nearly 200 year old anchor chain. There was so much of it we couldn't move it all.

Charles,

It is a shame to lose the historic significance of any area but you are right we have to balance things with progress. Atlanta for instance, it is difficult to do anything there without being on some sort of historic ground. We definitely need to preserve what we can while balancing the need for growth. I am saddened every time I go home and visit Kennesaw Mountain and see how development has grown right up to the park gates but I also understand the need in that growing metropolis. Where I draw the line is where developers use underhanded tactics and "imminent domain" to land grab which affects not only historic sites but personal property as well. I think Disney did it right in Orlando, he bought up much more land than was needed to maintain a pristine buffer between Disney World and surrounding development whereas Disneyland has development right outside the park with no buffer zone. Obviously I'm not comparing Disney to a historic site but it would be nice if there were more sites preserved IMHO.

Strangely enough, I can think of several places where progress has gone backwards (or forwards, depending how you define it). I grew up in Massachusetts, and there was an ice cream stand at the place where Paul Revere was captured. Somehow, I always imagined him stopping for ice cream and getting mugged by British soldiers while waiting in line. As I recall, when I left thirty years ago, buildings were being torn down that interfered with historic sites, and I think the ice cream stand was either one of them, or scheduled to go.

Last year, my wife and I visited Skyline Drive in Virginia for the first time. Part of the display in the visitor's center is focussed on the people and their homes which were relocated and destroyed to create a more pristine, natural view. It was bizarre, because the people weren't happy about it, and thus the official interpretation laid on a guilt trip at the same time it extolled the natural beauty of the area.

When comparing old maps of Hocking County Ohio with modern maps, I noticed that some roads were missing. Apparently, sometime in the 20th century, the state had bought up land to create a scenic park, torn up the roads, removed the homes, and let it grow back to woods.

I was talking to someone about Mount Katahdin in Maine, and she said it was a natural, scenic place without a lot of modern anachronisms. I said, what about all the cars, though? I remembered my parents driving us up the road to the top. She said the road was gone, no more vehicles, hikers only.

One could argue, ironically, that 20th century architecture and roads--themselves historic artifacts--were destroyed, but the problem is that land is never static, whether it's going from woods to field, fields to farms, farms to stores, back to fields or woods.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

During the recent (quite heavier than usual) Gulf Coast spring time rains two more caskets were uncovered on Greenwood Island.

Pictures! Pictures! We want pictures!

Ain't gwanna be no pitchers, not nairn.

The Department of Homeland Security will not allow cameras on the place.  There are tall fences on the shore side, complete with a manned gate house.  There is a boom type barrier on the three sides fronting on the water.  Why an offshore oil rig repair facility is under the scrutiny of the Dept of Homeland Security is a mystery itself.  This security becomes even more intriguing when a sizeable portion of the work force is non-English speaking third country nationals.

Curtis,

I'm thinking its a good thing you've moved away from the beach..........

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hanktrent wrote : One could argue, ironically, that 20th century architecture and roads--themselves historic artifacts--were destroyed, but the problem is that land is never static, whether it's going from woods to field, fields to farms, farms to stores, back to fields or woods.

Hank,

This thread reminds me of the last four trips through Pennsylvania. With the exception of a few railroad grades that may or may not be rail to trail facilities, a heck of a lot of the old Pennsylvania and West Virginia coal mines have been reclaimed, and it takes a little effort to understand what happened there.  Some of the industrial brownfields have undergone this conversion, too.

I had to smile at the "Elk Crossing" signs. Yep, there is a sign of progress to me. No pun intended.

Preservation is often in the eye of the beholder. There is some question about what to do with the old Cyclorama Center,on the Gettysburg Battlefield, since it was designed by some famous architect. We want it gone, while others feel strongly the building ought to be saved. Who's right?  

Curtis
Tuesday night July 22 at Pascagoula Library we are going to have a meeting about Greenwood Island.  Ought to think about coming.

Roger Hansen

6 pm

I'd like to, Roger, but my mother is having laser surgery on an eye about half way up the state on that same date.  I'll have to be there.  Otherwise, I would attend your presentation.