BILOXI, a city of Harrison county, Mississippi, U.S.A., about half-way between Mobile and New Orleans, on a narrow peninsula extending into Mississippi sound, a part of the Gulf of Mexico. It is on the old Spanish trail and the Louisville and Nashville railway, and is connected by a bus line with the Illinois Central system at Gulfport. The population in 5920 was 10,937, of which 1,615 were negroes, and was 14,850 in 1930.
Biloxi is both a summer and winter resort with more than the usual sea-side and country sports. Its vegetation, growing down to the water's edge, includes gigantic old live-oaks, dripping with Spanish moss, long leaf pines, magnolias, oleanders, camphor trees, and palms. The dominating industry is the catching, pack ing, and shipping of sea-food. The fleet of fishing smacks and other small craft numbers about Boo. In a normal year, the ship ments include more than 175,000 gal. of raw oysters packed in ice, 10,000,000 cans of oysters, and 8,000,000 cans of shrimps, besides fish, crabs, and turtles in large quantities.
Biloxi has been under five national flags (France, Spain, Eng land, the Confederacy, and the United States) and two state flags. In 1699, Pierre le Moyne d'Iberville (1661-1706) built Fort Maurepas across the bay from the present city, and the settlement there was the first capital of the French territory. It took its name, meaning "the first people" from the tribe of Sioux found there. In '712 a settlement was made on the present site, and this became the French capital from 1719 to 1722. An old house with walls of moss and clay is believed to date from this period and to be the oldest building in the Mississippi valley. In the war of 1812 the British fleet anchored off Ship island, preparatory to its attack on New Orleans, and during the Civil War Fort Massachusetts (now abandoned) on this island was an important base of Federal operations. On West Beach is Beauvoir, the home of Jefferson Davis, now appropriately occupied by the Mississippi Confederate soldiers' home. Biloxi was incorporated as a village in 1872, as a city in 1896: