Biloxi

Biloxi, city, coseat (with nearby Gulfport) of Harrison county, southern Mississippi, U.S. The city lies on a narrow Gulf Coast peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico (south) and Back Bay of Biloxi (north).

In 1699 the explorer Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville planted the French flag across Biloxi Bay at Old Biloxi (now Ocean Springs). The settlement there, at Fort Maurepas, was the first capital (1699–1702) of the Louisiana Territory. Fort Louis, the site of present-day Biloxi, was the territorial capital circa 1719–22. Since its founding, Biloxi has been under the flags of France, Spain, Great Britain, the West Florida Republic, the Confederacy, and the United States. During the American Civil War, it submitted to Union forces from Fort Massachusetts on Ship Island (12 miles [19 km] offshore and now part of Gulf Islands National Seashore). The city is named for the Biloxi, a Native American people who once inhabited the area; the name is thought to mean “first people.” Biloxi, on the Gulf Coast, is subject to periodic devastating hurricanes (tropical cyclones), including Hurricane Camille in 1969 and the even more destructive Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Beginning in the 1990s, casino gambling became one of Biloxi’s chief economic activities, with several casinos located in the city. Government services and seafood processing are also important. Annual festivals include the blessing of the shrimp fleet and the Biloxi Mardi Gras. Beauvoir, the home of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis for the last 12 years of his life, is 5 miles (8 km) west; it was heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The hurricane also destroyed both the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art and its new quarters, designed by architect Frank Gehry, which were then under construction; the museum reopened in 2010 after the main building was completed. Keesler Air Force Base is in the city. Inc. village, 1838; city, 1896. Pop. (2000) 50,644; Gulfport-Biloxi Metro Area, 246,190; (2010) 44,054; Gulfport-Biloxi Metro Area, 248,820.