OLD Ship Island - Keesler Rec Area - The Hull Truth

heymon02 · 09-04-2008, 06:15 PM

Any old-ish timers remember or have any memories or pictures of the section of Ship Island (now submerged) where Keesler used to run boats out to the old quarantine station for day trips? The sizable work boats would operate out of Point Cadet taking military members and their familes for a day of beaching and fishing (for a fee). There used to be a very, very long pier that extended northward off of that part of the island to navigable water where the large boat(s) would tie up. Overnight stays were permissable in the old quarantine buildings. I remember spending a week at a time (twice) simply to fish, fish, fish. Fishing the "stumps" near the wooded area was prime trout fishing in the morning...

It's kind of a stretch back (for some folks) but if any pics or memories are still out there I'd like to know of them.

Tight lines.

T Juan · 09-07-2008, 03:42 PM

No photos, but I made that trip many times. My dad was a pilot in the Mississippi Air Guard and we would stay at the old Edgewater Hotel for the two weeks he had camp in the summers. We would go out to the island several times during the stay. I remember riding a landing craft out to island and they ran up on the beach and this drove us ashore in a 6X6. The long wooden board walk was always hot. I do remember the "Club" a two story building that served beer and snacks. I also remember Quonset Huts on the Island. This was late 50's. I do have an offical photo of a bomb being dropped on Chandelur Island.

heymon02 · 09-07-2008, 04:49 PM

I remember those catwalks snaking from one building to another as the sand was a tad too soft to make any time walking on. especially hauling fishing tackle. I remember that long landing pier out there on the sound side seeming to be the longest one I ever walked on. There was a small rail truck that rode on tracks from the end of the pier where the boat(s) would dock all the way to the first building on the island. Supplies for the small crew on the island and carry-alongs daytrippers brought with them were rolled on that cart.

On a trip out to the island in the early 70's to explore the ruins (from Camille), I found parts of that track and the wheel trucks from that heavy cart. They were half-buried in the sand near the footings for some of the old peir's pilings. Successive storms have submerged that area, too.

Keesler abondoned its recreation efforts on Ship shortly after the time you took your trips with your Dad out there due to funding. Not that many "customers" utilized the venue, I suppose. And that was the pure beauty of the place. When the shuttle boat would leave the island each afternoon to return to Point Cadet with its load of tired, sunburned visitors, the island became as close to deserted as you could get. Once the sun was down and we headed out to the end of the long pier to fish the lights for specs and rat reds, the view of the Biloxi skyline was quite special, even back then. We would seine small grass shrimp out of the shallows to fish the lights with... After a few hours of that, it was time to grab the (white gas) lantern and go stab some flounder in the shallows of the cove that ended near the trees.

We had the rec department secure funding to place a nice chest deep freezer in one of the sleeping quarters (old quarantine officers' buildings) and you can bet it saw a lot of use in a week's stay out there! Those old quarantine buildings were historic beauties in their own right and had stood since the beginning of the century. Musta been a lot of good, non-tropical seasons for quite a while! Those buildings finally bit the dust when Camille came to town... Successive storms have erased any above-water signs of their foundations. A few pictures of the island, including one aerial shot of the area taken in the mid-50's is in an historic research study of Ship Island by Edwin C. Bearss. That book can be seen at the National Seashore park office in Ocean Springs. Folks there are quite helpful...

Any way, Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer had nothing on boys who were fortunate enough to enjoy Biloxi's natural resources, especially on the islands on the edge of the Mississippi Sound! No subsitute for nostalgia, they say...

I'm still on the hunt for memories like yours and any old snapshots that may have survived.