Visiting Biloxi |
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| Far from Jackson Mississippi is the Biloxi, a coastal city located along the Gulf of Mexico. The city was hammered pretty hard by Hurricane Katrina, but since New Orleans saw a larger loss of life and overall destruction, Biloxi and Mississippi in general didn’t receive that much attention. From what I saw in Biloxi, there were little signs of the hurricane’s damage 5 years later. Above are yachts along the main port. |
   Biloxi and southern Mississippi are famous for their casinos, which is one of the main sources of revenue for this part of the state. Since Biloxi is very close to Alabama, Louisiana, and western Florida people can easily make a day trip to here to gamble while also enjoying the beach life. The photos above are some of the places people would visit, with the casino in the upper right known as Boomtown casino. There are much larger and fancier casinos than this one, but I decided to include its photo since it was literally split in half by Hurricane Katrina and had to be rebuilt. |
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| Two places that stood out in Biloxi is the small park on the right, which has includes a Hurricane Katrina memorial, and the mast of the USS Biloxi on the left. The USS Biloxi fought against Japan in world war II, and survived a kamikaze attack and was lucky that a bomb dropped through the hull didn’t explode. The mast is erected above a memorial dedicated to Mississippi veterans who fought in all wars |
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| This bridge in Biloxi was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, the storm which arrived in 2005 killed over 100 people in Mississippi and over 1,000 in Louisiana. Below is the Katrina Memorial dedicated to those who lost their lives. The lower right picture shows personal items found after the storm. |
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| With Mississippi mostly made up of small cities and towns, there are vast amounts of wilderness to explore both up north and in the south. Since I visited in winter, the scenery wasn’t too great and not much wildlife out and about yet, but that would change in March. I am happy with the picture on the upper left, you can get an idea of the how big the forests are in the south, and I imagine farther up north they are even larger since the coastal areas can be touristy. Both the photos above are from the Biloxi area which is subtropical. You can expect to find everything from occasional palm trees to alligators in the right season. The tree on the upper right photo is covered in Spanish Moss, which covers most of the southeastern coastal regions of the United States. |
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| Above is a patch of some type of subtropical plants I came across while hiking in Mississippi. I’m not sure of the plant on the right, but it was new to me and I’ve never seen a species like it before. |
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| During my hike I also caught only two different species of bird The left is a red-bellied woodpecker which lives in most of the states, but I don’t often see them. The bird above looks to be some type of Vireo, which I don’t think I’ve seen up north. My eventual return to Mississippi in the summer will bring lots more wildlife shots. |