Pascagoula

Town and administrative headquarters of Jackson County, southeast Mississippi; population (1990) 25,900. It is situated at at the mouths of the Pascagoula and Escatawpa rivers on Mississippi Sound (the Gulf of Mexico), 20 mi/32 km east of Biloxi. Industries include fishing, shipbuilding, paper, petroleum, and chemicals. Pascagoula is a popular resort.

The town grew up around the ‘Old Spanish Fort’ built by the Frenchman Joseph Simon de la Pointe in 1718. It has at various times in its history been owned by Britain, Spain, and the free state of West Florida. It became a summer resort in the mid-19th century and from the 1870s thrived as a lumber shipping port. Abundant southeast Mississippi wood also made it a shipbuilding center, a role in which it boomed during both World Wars. Through the Cold War it continued to build destroyers and other naval vessels.