Biloxi sits along Mississippi’s short stretch of Gulf Coast, far south of Jackson and only a short distance from Louisiana and Alabama. I visited several years after Hurricane Katrina, and by then much of the city had been rebuilt. The waterfront, marinas, casinos, and beaches made Biloxi feel completely different from the inland parts of Mississippi I had already explored.
These boats were docked along one of the main waterfront areas. Biloxi has long been tied to the Gulf through fishing, shipping, tourism, and recreation, and the water remains central to the city’s identity.
Casinos and the Waterfront
Casinos are a major part of Biloxi’s modern tourism industry. The Gulf Coast attracts visitors from Mississippi and neighboring states who come for gambling, restaurants, hotels, entertainment, and the beaches.
This is Boomtown Casino, one of several casinos operating around Biloxi. Some of the city’s larger resorts are much more elaborate, but I included this one because of its connection to Hurricane Katrina. Like much of the Gulf Coast, the property suffered major storm damage and later had to be rebuilt.
Military History
Biloxi also has several memorials connected to America’s military history. One that caught my attention incorporated the mast of the USS Biloxi, a light cruiser that served in the Pacific during World War II. The ship survived intense combat, including a kamikaze attack, before eventually being decommissioned after the war.
The surrounding park also contains memorials dedicated to veterans and to victims of Hurricane Katrina, tying together two very different parts of Biloxi’s history.
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in August 2005 and caused catastrophic damage across southern Mississippi. New Orleans received much of the national attention because of the flooding and loss of life there, but coastal Mississippi was also devastated by storm surge and wind.
This photograph shows damage to a bridge in the Biloxi area. Entire neighborhoods, businesses, casinos, roads, and waterfront structures were destroyed or heavily damaged during the storm.
Biloxi’s Katrina Memorial honors those who lost their lives and preserves reminders of what happened to the city. By the time I visited, much of the obvious physical damage had disappeared, but sites like this made it clear how severe the destruction had been.
Among the most powerful parts of the memorial were personal belongings recovered after the storm. Seeing ordinary objects preserved here made the disaster feel much more personal than simply reading statistics about destroyed buildings or storm surge.
Mississippi Gulf Coast
Outside the developed areas around Biloxi, southern Mississippi quickly becomes much more natural. Forests, wetlands, marshes, and coastal vegetation cover large parts of the region, giving the Gulf Coast a subtropical appearance that is very different from northern Mississippi.
I visited during winter, so the scenery wasn’t as lush as it would be during the warmer months, but there were still plenty of reminders that I was along the Gulf Coast. Spanish moss covered some of the trees, and the surrounding habitat supports everything from alligators and turtles to a huge variety of birds.
I came across these ferns while hiking through one of the natural areas near the coast. Even during the cooler season, the vegetation looked noticeably different from what I was used to seeing farther north.
This plant was another one I didn’t recognize. I never managed to identify it, but it stood out enough from the surrounding vegetation that I stopped to photograph it.
Wildlife
Wildlife was relatively quiet during my winter visit, but I still managed to photograph a few birds. This red-bellied woodpecker was the easiest one for me to identify. They’re found across much of the eastern United States, although I don’t see them nearly as often as some of the more common backyard birds.
This second bird was harder for me to identify, but it appeared to be some type of small songbird. A return during spring or summer would probably produce a completely different wildlife experience, when the warmer weather brings out reptiles, insects, and far more bird activity.
Biloxi ended up showing me a side of Mississippi that felt completely separate from Jackson. The casinos and waterfront resorts were one part of the experience, but the Hurricane Katrina memorials, military history, coastal forests, and Gulf scenery gave the area considerably more depth than I had expected. If I return, I’d especially like to spend more time exploring the natural areas along the Mississippi coast.
