East Jackson County Neighborhood Plan

Strategies for managing growth and improving quality of life

Eastern Jackson CountyNeighborhood Plan

A PUBLICA PUBLICA PUBLICA PUBLICA PUBLICAAAAATION OF THE 2029 JACKSON COUNTY GROWTH STRATION OF THE 2029 JACKSON COUNTY GROWTH STRATION OF THE 2029 JACKSON COUNTY GROWTH STRATION OF THE 2029 JACKSON COUNTY GROWTH STRATION OF THE 2029 JACKSON COUNTY GROWTH STRATEGIES EFFORTEGIES EFFORTEGIES EFFORTEGIES EFFORTEGIES EFFORTTTTT

Eastern Jackson CountyNeighborhood Plan

Encompassing thefollowing communities:

Big PBig PBig PBig PBig PointointointointointNorth EscatawpaNorth EscatawpaNorth EscatawpaNorth EscatawpaNorth EscatawpaFFFFForts Lorts Lorts Lorts Lorts LakakakakakeeeeeHelenaHelenaHelenaHelenaHelenaHarlestonHarlestonHarlestonHarlestonHarlestonHurleyHurleyHurleyHurleyHurleyOrange GrOrange GrOrange GrOrange GrOrange Groveoveoveoveove

Eastern Jackson County Neighborhood Plan

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Neighborhood PlanEastern Jackson County

JAlan Sudduth, County Administrator

Michele Coats, Director

Eric Patronas, GIS Technician II

Lois CastigliolaBetty Rodgers

Manly Barton, District 1Melton Harris, District 2Mike Mangum, District 3Tommy Brodnax, District 4John McKay, District 5 (President)

Lisa CannonDwight CauleyThomas EldridgeLarry HammondsDoug MolyneauxRicky MurphyJames Planer

WilsonMiller, Inc.Mike Lane, AICP, Senior PlannerRay Greer, AICP, Regional Manager

PRISM Associates, Inc.G. Richard Larkin, Ph. D., Principal

Gulf Regional Planning CommissionKen Holland, Senior Planner

Western Jackson County Neighborhood Plan

The following individuals generously contributed knowledge and time tothe Eastern Jackson County Planning Focus Group Committee. The Plan-ning Department extends its sincere gratitude to each of them for the valuethey added through their participation.

Gary BellJeff CochranMark CumbestKevin DearmanGlenn DickersonTommy EldridgeSheryl HelmsTerry JacksonBarbara MartinSteve McMellonKaren TolbertGary Webb

2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


3TABLE OF CONTENTS

ITable of Contents

Purpose of the Plan................................................................................4Scope of the Plan..................................................................................5Planning Process...................................................................................6MAP 1: The Eastern Jackson County Planning Area....................................7

Neighborhood Analysis.............................................................................9Current Conditions.................................................................................10Current Goals.......................................................................................12History of the Area................................................................................13MAP 2: Existing Land Use.........................................................................34

Land Use Strategies................................................................................34Housing Strategies................................................................................34Recreation & Open Space.......................................................................37Transportation..............................................................................................38Public Services and Utilities...................................................................39MAP 3: Current Zoning Classifications......................................................41MAP 4: Recommended Land Use...........................................................42MAP 5: Community Facilities....................................................................43

Planned and Proposed........................................................................44MAP 6: Infrastructure Priorities.................................................................46

Resources and Contact Information.......................................................47


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TINTRODUCTION TO THE PLAN

The Eastern Jackson County Neighborhood Planwas developed in late 2008 by the residents of thearea to establish short and long term policies formanaging growth in the designated area denotedas the Eastern Jackson County area. It is the intentof The Plan to protect the character of the area forfuture generations while encouraging responsibledevelopment of rural residential neighborhoodsalong with neighborhood business districts. In thenear future, this plan will be used by developers,

residents, and county leaders to aid in their deci-sion making. The Plans recommendations willassist in guiding investment, protecting thecommunitys assets, building the neighborhoodsstrength and identifying capital improvements. ThePlan will also assist the Jackson County Board ofSupervisors in regulating subdivision development,land use and zoning changes, as they are receivedand reviewed.

Purpose of the Plan

The Jackson County Comprehensive Plan: Growth Strategies, prepared in 2009. The Jackson County Subdivision Regulations Revised: 2008. The Jackson County Zoning Ordinance: Revised 2009. The Jackson County Zoning Map: Revised 2009. The Jackson County Future Land Use Map: Revised 2009.

RELATED DOCUMENTS


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PR

IVA

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RD

I-10

2029Growth Strategies

Jackson County

Iies of Moss Point and Pascagoula on its west,George County on the north and the MS Soundon its south side. The Plan is the product ofdiscussions amongst the Eastern JacksonCounty Focus Group and planning consultantsfrom August, 2008 to November, 2008. The planwas completed in December and adopted bythe Board of Supervisors in early 2009.

Scope of the PlanIn late 2008, the Eastern Jackson County Neigh-borhood Plan was developed in a series offour area plans that collectively cover the en-tire county, excluding the incorporated areas(cities of Gautier, Moss Point, Ocean Springs,and Pascagoula). Specifically, the Eastern Jack-son County area is bounded by the State ofAlabama on its east; the eastern fringe area ofthe Pascagoula River Wildlife Area and the Cit-

FontainebleauArea

Eastern AreaVancleaveArea

WesternArea

The Jackson County Planning Area Map comprised of four geographic areas:Fontainebleau, Eastern, Vancleave and Western areas.

Eastern Jackson County Neighborhood Plan Fontainebleau Neighborhood Plan Vancleave Neighborhood Plan Western Jackson County Neighborhood Plan

INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAN

NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING DOCUMENTS


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T

Planning Process

The planning process began on August 11,2008. A group comprised of area residents,community leaders, planning consultants, andlocal business representatives convened at theEast Central Community Center to review theplanning area boundaries and maps and dis-cuss what they liked and disliked about the area.During the subsequent months, the group ex-plored a wide variety of community concernsand began to formalize a series of goals andobjectives for the area. In November, 2008, thePlanning Consultants compiled the groups work

Defined the planning area boundaries and set goals forthis process.

Established the Internet web site which provided a placefor people to go and review our progress.

Discussed issues related to land use, zoning matters,and issues of mutual concern.

Generated a map of the existing land use and currentaerial photograph to assist in these efforts.

Prepared the draft Neighborhood Plan and generatedrelevant maps to assist in its interpretation.

Hosted a public open house to obtain feedback fromneighborhood residents and area business representatives.

Presented the plan to the Jackson County PlanningCommission for their review and approval.

Gathered background information and generatedmaps of the planning area.

Focused the discussions on the areas strengths,weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Generated preliminary recommendations for devel-opment standards.

Concluded discussions of goals and objectives.Developed growth policies and recommended land useplan.

Convened the Focus Group to review and revisethe draft plan.

Distributed the document to county departments andother key stakeholders for their comments.

Adopted by the County Board of Supervisors.

into a draft plan document. The group con-vened again in December to review the draft,make revisions, and select a date for presen-tation to the public. Copies were then distrib-uted internally to county staff for review andcomment. The final draft, approved by the fo-cus group, was presented to area residents,and neighborhood groups in January. The planwas subsequently forwarded to the PlanningCommission for review and in February it wasadopted by the Board of County Supervisers.

INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAN

Timeline


8 INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAN

[This Page Intentionally Left Blank]


9ANALANALANALANALANALYSIS AND REVIEWYSIS AND REVIEWYSIS AND REVIEWYSIS AND REVIEWYSIS AND REVIEW

TNeighborhood Analysis

Total Acreage: 145,867 Ac.Total Developed: 51,579 Ac.Total Vacant: 94,280 Ac.Total Conservation: 19,172 Ac. (Private & Public)Total Commercial: 1,217 Ac.Total Industrial: 394 Ac.Total Residential: 30,546 Ac.Total Church Related: 250 Ac.Total No. of Parcels: 13,392

LAND USAGE

DEMOGRAPHICS

Total No. of Subdivisions: 75Average Size of Lots: 0.91 acres

Gulf Regional Planning Commission, GIS Division

Total Population: 18,621 peopleUnder Age 44: 12,554Ages 45-64: 4,404Ages 65+: 1,663White: 17,102Black: 1,258Asian: 57Hawaiian: 7All Others: 62

Total Housing Units: 6,913Total Households: 6,461Owner Occupied: 5,531 unitsVacant: 452 unitsAverageHousehold Size: 2.69 persons

ZONING:Total Agriculture: 94,280 Ac.

A-1A-2A-3

Total Residential: 30,546 Ac.R-1R-1AR-1BR-2R-3R-4

Total Commercial: 1,217 Ac.C-1C-2C-3

Total Industrial: 394 Ac.I-1I-2I-3

Total Flood Plain:

Total Public Lands:

Total GUDA:

Total OSUDA:

Total PUD: U.S. Bureau of the Census - 2000 Figures*AC. = acres


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CCurrent Conditions

Conveniently located near the metropoli-tan area of Mobile, AL providing easy ac-cess to retail shopping, restaurants, enter-tainment, hospitals, University of South Ala-bama and numerous employment oppor-tunities.

Close proximity to key employment plantsChevron, Mississippi Power Plant (PlantDaniel), Tindall Industries and NorthropGrumman.

MS Export industrial site which includesthe new Tindall Industries.

Rural character of area

The area has a great school district and ishome to a large number of churches.

The Hurley business district is an up-and-coming neighborhood commercial area.

Whispering Pines Golf Course, a publicgolf course, owned by Jackson County.

The area lies between two very beautifulrivers, the Pascagoula and EscatawpaRivers, with recreational potential.

Lum Cumbest Park offers the area manyrecreational opportunities.

Convenient access to major transportationroutes Hwy 90 and I-10.

Mobile Regional Airport offers easyaccess for commercial air transportation.

As identified by the members of the Eastern Jackson County Planning Focus Group

STRENGTHS

OPPORTUNITIES New development could raise the barin housing types, buffering, and openspace.

Water and Sewer services, if available,could provide for additional housingdevelopment, more densely populatedsubdivisions along with an enhancedbusiness district.

Improved zoning regulations andneighborhood planning could lay thefoundation for more responsibledevelopment of the area.

Opportunity for an off-highway businessdistrict at the intersection of Hwy 613 andHwy 614 providing more neighborhoodcommercial property while diminishinghighway congestion.

Opportunity for a new business / retaildistrict near the Interstate 10 exit at Forts

ANALYSIS AND REVIEW

Lake.

The area has the potential for another lightindustrial park (similar to Sunplex) to bedeveloped in the area near the intersectionof Hwy 63 and Hwy 613.

Potential for development of many newrecreational opportunities due to theabundance of natural resources.

By providing more access to thewaterways, the area has the opportunity todistinguish itself as an ecotourist destination,a place where business sector servicingthe tourists can thrive.

The area has great potential as anecotourist destination.


11ANALYSIS AND REVIEW

NCurrent infrastructure in the area, such asroads and schools, will need improvementin order to accommodate a large influx ofnew residents.Current zoning and planning regulations

are insufficient to manage responsiblegrowth in the area.

Limited amount of off-highwaycommercial property at community centersand intersections.

Limited east-west transportationcorridors.

Lack of 24/7 medical facilities north of I-10.

Code enforcement staff has not beenactively enforcing the codes in this area

WEAKNESSES

THREATS The availability of water and sewer ser-vices without responsible zoning could re-sult in high density residential developmentand lead to congested roadways, over-crowded schools and loss of the rural char-acter of the area.

Irresponsible development could lead toreduced property values.

Potential of neighborhood business dis-tricts extending for miles along major road-ways, creating congestion and impedingtraffic flow patterns.

Unless new roads are built and narrowroads are widened, growing traffic will cre-ate a high risk of accidents.

If large apartment complexes are devel-

since Hurricane Katrina.

Most of the roads/streets in thearea do not have shoulders and areextremely narrow to allow for safetravel.

There are very few quality boatlaunches and sufficient parking areason the two rivers in the area.

Many of the rural roads are dirt andhave to be graded or repaired after asignificant storm event.

oped in the Big Point-Hurley-Wade com-munities, there will be an adverse impactto the County school system, due to theincrease in school children to the schoolsystem without contributing the funds nec-essary to improve or sustain the school dis-trict.

A lot of people in the Hurley-Wade com-munities do their shopping in Mobile, whichdiverts tax dollars from Jackson County andthe State of Mississippi to the State of Ala-bama, the City of Mobile, or Mobile County.


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RCurrent Goals

Extracted from the Eastern Jackson County Planning Focus Group Meetings

ANALYSIS AND REVIEW

Rezone all the nice, existing subdivisionsin the area to a zone which does not allowmobile homes to be placed in the area.

Allow limited commercial activities (C-1)in the area, particularly at road intersectionssuch as Hwy 613 / 614 or Hwy 63 / 614.

Develop a new zoning code for RuralResidential development (Code R-5). Sucha code would facilitate subdivisiondevelopment in rural Jackson County that isin harmony with the current character of thearea.

Business / Retail district near the Interstate10 exit at Forts Lake. Encourage restaurant,retail and multi-family housing at thisintersection due to close proximity to I-10,Hwy-90 and major employers such asChevron.

Allow development of rural residentialsubdivisions in the area with densities of 2units per acre. Provisions could be definedwhich would limit the size and location ofthese higher density subdivisions to helpthem blend with the character of the area.

Encourage the development of PlannedUnit Developments (PUD) in the area,maintaining the strict requirements anddevelopment agreements that haveaccompanied the approval by the Countyof these developments in the past.

Allow limited commercial activities (C-1)or possibly a light industrial park in the areanear the intersection of Hwy 63 & Hwy 613.

Abundant wildlife is found within the area,and considerations should be given tomaintaining and enhancing habitat, andminimizing disruption of migration routes.

Strongly encourage developers to usecovenants and restrictions for theirsubdivisions.

Consider the development of a countywide ordinance which aggressivelyaddresses property maintenance to regulatethe sites where single family homes arebeing constructed. The point is to limit thenumber of weeks a property can remainlittered with construction debris.

Protect the natural beauty of the area andencourage the creation of an open spacenetwork through development agreementsand conservation easements.

Continue to attract more aerospaceindustries around the Trent Lott InternationalAirport.

Expand the Trent Lott International Airportto attract more aeronautical industries to thearea.

Work with the major industries (i.e. NorthropGrumman, Signal International, and Chevron)to help them realize their best potential.

Allow the platted towns to develop on thelots of record, when the water and sewerlines are extended through the area.

Develop an off-highway business districtat the intersection of Hwy 613 and Hwy 614providing public road access to more C-1commercial property while diminishinghighway congestion.


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BBIG POINT Northeast JacksonCounty between Black Creek and theswamps west of Lyons Lake and theEscatawpa River traditionallyknown as Big Point was sparselysettled until the turn of the century.Then the few families that were livingin this areathe Colemans,Cunninghams, Goffs, Nelsons andBariaswere joined by an influx ofpeople from the north and midwest.They had been lured here by claims ofcheap land and fertile soil. Someheard that the warm climate was goodfor their ailments.

They bought large tracts of land,started farming, or went into business,and got along well with the locals.Over the years, their childrenintermarried and formed the close-knit,rural community that Big Point is todayThey (land developers) told thepeople that they could get rich here,that you could buy land for $5 an acre.Some were disappointed. They gotdiscouraged and went back home. Alot stayed and made their homeshere, said retired teacher andpostmaster, Henrietta CunninghamMoak.

Everyone was very congenial.

Among the families who moved to BigPoint in the early 1900s were theBrighams, Eberharts, Hazards andFairs from Michigan; the Martzes,Parkhursts, Martins, from Illinois. TheGrafes, Longs, Ogborns, Frees,Hubbells, McCarrys, Stowells, Snells,Hovarters and others from Indiana.They all came down the same year

by Arby Arby Arby Arby Archivists Betty Rodgers and Lois Castigliolachivists Betty Rodgers and Lois Castigliolachivists Betty Rodgers and Lois Castigliolachivists Betty Rodgers and Lois Castigliolachivists Betty Rodgers and Lois Castigliola

The History of Big Point, Escatawpa, Forts Lake, Helena,Harleston, Hurley, & Orange Grove

1914from the same place. They allknew each other before they came,said Ralph Grafe of Moss Point aboutseveral of the Indiana families. Friendsand relatives decided to movetogether.

The northern people came here togrow pecans and oranges, recallsDorlar Kennedy Goff, whose family stillhas farmed acreage off Goff FarmRoad for more than 100 years.The Goffs were early Big Pointsettlers. Four brothersWilburn,John, Bulter and Frankacquired 160acres of land each, later selling some,or dividing it among their heirs.Three Goff brothers married into theCunningham family, who were alsoearly Big Point residents. Mrs. Moaksgrandfather, William J.S. Cunningham,came from Paducah, KY, andhomesteaded 2,000 acres of landbetween Hurley and Big Point. He andhis wife, who was of Indiana heritage,raised a large family, who spreadthroughout the wilderness of northernJackson County.

Before the northerners came, manypeople around Big Point made theirliving in the timber industry. Mrs.Moaks father, Abner C. Cunningham,was a cook for the L.N. DantzlerLumber Company. Nelson Lawson, aformer Jackson County supervisorfrom Big Point, was also alumberman. But the timber businesswas declining by the 1920s.D.W. Snell, who came from UnionCity, IN, to Big Point, farmed on a largescale, employing many people in thecommunity, and tried his hand at

ANALYSIS AND REVIEW


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raising cotton. After he died, his son,Frank, took over the farm.

There was some cotton farmed in thearea and before the boll weevils ate it,there was enough cotton betweenhere and George County to have acotton gin at Lucedale, Mrs. Moaksaid.

Wirth Goff was the town blacksmith,as well as a farmer.

The name Big Point probably becameofficial in 1894 when the first postoffice to serve the tiny spot wasopened. Joseph Gresham was firstpostmaster. Samuel J. Walterssucceeded him the next year and D.H.Moody took over in 1898. Mrs. RubyGoff Eberhart was postmistressbetween 1914 to 1928, until illnessforced her to relinquish her job. Thepost office continued to operate untilthe 1930s when Miss Ota Free waspostmistress. After that the mail wasdelivered from Hurley.

Around 1910, the successful MossPoint lumber concern, the W. DennyCompany, sold thousands of acres ofundeveloped land in northeastJackson County to the LamptonRealty of Magnolia, Miss. Lampton laidout several town sites along theplanned (northsouth) AlabamaMississippi Railroad that wouldeventually link to Pascagoula. BigPoint was one of these towns, laid outin 1912 by surveyor O.H. Broun.The plat in the courthouse shows thatthe main road of the town was theSaracennia Highway, an old road thatstarted in Escatawpa, went throughHelena and Big Point. Today Goff

Farm Road is part of that abandonedroute.

The western boundary of the plannedtown was West Street and FrontStreet ran along the railroad. Otherstreets were Highland Avenue, FultonStreet, Main Street, Camp Street,Sycamore Street and DenmarkAvenue. Between Denmark andSycamore, the developers set asideland for Magnolia Park.

The planned town never developed.Most people who bought lots in thetownsite acquired several lots to raisecrops, or have space between themand their neighbors. But a smallbusiness district developed.

There was a depot, a grocery store onboth sides of the railroad tracks, apost office and a community building,that once stood north of Big PointMethodist Church.

Oldtimers recall a canning factory thatstayed busy canning local produceinto the 1920s. it was located acrossthe railroad tracks on a site behindtodays Big Point Quick Stop onMississippi 613, the communities onlybusiness.

The existing Big Point CommunityCenter, now the site of gospel singsand other socials was once a two-story school, built in 1914. One of thestorms tore up the building and theyrebuilt it and kept it one story,remembers Mrs. Moak.

Earlier Big Points children went toLittle Red Hollow School. JacksonCounty school records exist from BigPoint intermittently, beginning in 1884.

ANALYSIS AND REVIEW


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Children named Goff, Jones, Nelson,Dicken, Rogers, Baria, Odom,Holland, Broom and Enterkin attendedschool during those early days.Big Points early settler were of theMethodist faith and the only church inthe area until the 1960s was Big PointUnited Methodist Church. The churchwas organized in 1876 in a log buildingnear the Dallas Cunningham place.Thomas Pierce and Charles Calhounwere the first pastors. Four years later,a new log church was built on BrazilBranch, about 50 yards east of what isnow Mississippi 613. Thecongregation continued worship thereuntil 1907 when the church wasmoved to its present site.

Although they were of different faiths,many of the northerners that moved toBig Point attended the church.The Rev. Stowell, Mrs. Longsmaternal grandfather, also conductednondenominational service in theformer community building, for a time.A second church came to thecommunity on May 3, 1964 whenTemple Baptist Church was founded.The railroad was a lifeline of thecommunity in the early 1900s. Roadswere poor, bridges were few and travelwas slow, but the railroad eased theimport and export of supplies andmaintained a passenger service. Thetrain delivered the mail and wed waitfor our Chronicle Star to comethrough, Mrs. Goff said.

Grandpa used to hate the ferry. Hishorse did, too. He wouldnt always goon the ferry, said longtime Big Pointresident Vera Long Coleman. Hergrandfather, H.S. Long, came to Big

Point from Portland, Ind., in 1910 andoperated one of the stores by thedepot.

Long would have to go to Mobile oncea week to stock his shelves and thefamily would go to Pascagoula to selleggs. They would leave by daylightand it would be after dark before youwould get home, Mrs. Coleman said.It would take two days to go andcome from Mobile, she said.

Longs son, Clifton, finished businesscollege in IN, then joined his parentsin Big Point, where he met andmarried Mae Stowell. She had comewith her parents, Rev. and Mrs.William Stowell from Logansport, INThe Stowells eventually moved toColumbus, OH, when they realizedthat the Mississippi Gulf Coast wasnot the dry climate that their doctorhad suggested they find. Clifton andMay Long also left after the birth oftheir daughter, Vera. But the Longsreturned to Stowells property, duringthe Depression. Vera married FelixColeman of Wolf Ridge.

This branch of the Coleman familylives in the section of Big Point calledthe Big Island, fertile acreagesurrounded by Big Creek. Beforemodern roads and good bridges, thepeople who lived on Big Island oftenfelt isolated when the water rose.

Some days we would get stranded inhere and the kids had to walk toschool, said Mrs. Coleman.A doctor has never set up practice inBig Point. If a baby was on the way,there was a choice between the localmidwife, or Dr. R.C. Eley of Moss

ANALYSIS AND REVIEW


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Point, even into the 1950s. Eley wasthe only doctor who would make thetrip to Big Point. That man deservesa place in heaven. He would helpeveryone and most of the time he gotpaid with a sack of corn, a chicken, ora pig, Mrs. Coleman recalls.

Big Point residents always exhibited acommunity spirit and both a volunteerfire department and a homedemonstration club were active formany years. Today East CentralVolunteer Fire Department protectsthe area.

Up until 1950, there were just a fewpeople here, but we are still just asclose, said Dorlar Goff, a lifelongresident. We had a death last weekand you could see the love. These aregood people. We all work together andenjoy long lives here, she said.

ESCATAWPA In the days whenIndians roamed the wilds of JacksonCounty, cane grew abundantly alongthe river that flowed to the east of thePascagoula. The Indians were said tohave made annual pilgrimages to thisarea to cut cane for their baskets.Thus, this riverside spot becameknown as Oestcatawpa, or trimcane, from the Choctaw word uskameaning cane and tapa meaningcut. People of many ethnic originswho settled in this region in the 1800sadopted the old Indian name,eventually spelling it, Escatawpa. Thatname is pronounced with pride bydescendants of the old families andeven those who came later. They areproud both of their heritage and of thefight their people have waged for most

of this century to keep Escatawpaindependent. In recent years,Escatawpans have warded offannexation efforts by their neighboracross the river, Moss Point. Fiercelyindependent, even Escatawpanswho are lukewarm to the concept ofincorporation want to remain aseparate entity.

Escatawpa has grown markedly inthe past several decades from analmost sleepy village to a virtual cityof 6,500 people with the same woesas other Coast cities, including afinancially-troubled utility system.The building of major highways,Mississippi 63 and 613 and theopening of Interstate 10, haveboosted the already active businesscommunity.

But Escatawpa did not spring upsuddenly as a result of the modernroads. Small pockets of people havelived throughout the widespread areareferred to as Escatawpa, or DogRiver as it was also called early on,since many years before the CivilWar.

Neighboring communities, such asWilson Springs, Three Rivers, TigerPoint, and Ford were once generallycalled Escatawpa. Ford wasannexed by Moss Point in the early1900s, a fact that has madeEscatawpa wary ever since.

The 1870 census of Jackson Countydoes not have a designation ofEscatawpa, but refers to DutchBayou. Longtime residents say indays gone by the section boundedby the rivers was also nicknamed

ANALYSIS AND REVIEW


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Tugas.

When I was in 10th grade we had abasketball team going to Perkinston.They would call people who used to goto school over here Tugas people. Idont know how it got started, nativePrentiss Nelson said.

Whether it was Dog River,Escatawpa, or Tugas, the placebecame officially known asEscatawpa in 1855, when HenryEhlers opened the first post office andcalled it Escatawpa.

In 1844, G.P. Kerr had opened a short-lived post office named Saranac,which was no doubt in the vicinity ofSaracennia Road, as the name waschanged a short time later toSaracena, while Kerr was stillpostmaster. Clara Mills took the job in1885, but a few months later, the postoffice closed and the mail from thatarea was served from the newEscatawpa Post Office.

The Escatawpa office had probablybeen the third establishment in theareas history. Between 1853 and1863, William G. Elder ran a postoffice called Elders Ferry in an areathat was located around Ford. After itclosed until the time that theEscatawpa post office opened, mailcame from Moss Point.

After Ehlers had been postmaster forfive years, he was succeeded byCharles Ehlers and Victoria Bertram.Chrisian A. Mork became postmasterin 1895.

But the postmasters mostremembered were Aurelia Stevens,

who served from 1901 to 1914 andher sister, Lizzie Lester, who took overfor awhile was succeeded by JoeDowdy.

The old post office was located justsouth of Interstate 10 on Mississippi613. It was a little, one-room building.They handed you the mail, recalled90-year-old Mrs. Flora CanfieldLemaitre. Todays post office is onMississippi 613 in the heart of thebusiness district.

Families who moved into the area inthe 1800s were named Suthoff, Raby,Roberts, Rogers, Bertram,Cunningham, Miller, Mizell, Sherman,Oliver, Canfield, Lemaitre, Goff,Greenough, Smith, Graham, andothers.

Historian, F.W. Bob Cirlot of MossPoint, says that more than a dozenGerman families migrated fromBavaria, the Alsace-Lorraine and theGerman Rhine River area toEscatawpa about 1850. Theseincluded the Cromer, Ehler, Colmer,Fields, Brentz, Passo, Lennep,Phronie, Brondum families and others.

By 1858, the Germans had formed St.Pauls Lutheran Church, one of theoldest Lutheran congregations, andwith the congregation growing, achurch was built of the north side ofpresent day Dutch Bayou Road by1879. The church, greatly resemblingthe Finnish Lutheran Church atKreole, was built on land donated in1878 by Conrad Cromer and HenryEhlers, brothers-in-law, who ownedmuch land.

ANALYSIS AND REVIEW


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Joe LeMaitre, an early Escatawpan ofFrench descent, was a shinglemarkerwho made and donated the shinglesfor the church roof, says Mrs.Lemaitre, his daughter-in-law. Herhusband was the widow of longtimestorekeeper Ernest L. Lemaitre. Soonafter the establishment of the church,the congregation secured Lutheranmissionaries from New York to teach aschool for religion and the three Rs.Hearing about the school, others ofGerman descent living on LouisianasCoast moved to Escatawpa. Thechildren of other Escatawpa settlers,who had come from parts of the Southand from Northern and Eastern states-the Smiths, Canfields, the Suthoffs andothers-attended the school, regardlessof their religious beliefs, until the countyschool system was developed in thelate 1800s.

The Escatawpa congregation was theother church of Christ LutheranChurch in Pascagoula, organized in1888. But the Pascagoula church grewas the Lutheran congregation asEscatawpa dwindled.

A hurricane-damaged St. Pauls wasrazed in 1943. The lumber from the oldchurch was used to build the parishhall at Christ Lutheran.The Methodist Church was organizedas Zion Methodist Church about thesame time as the Lutheran on landdeeded to the church by John Newton.Later the church built a larger buildingon Elder Ferry Road.

The First Baptist Church was born inFebruary 1887. Later the ReorganizedChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter DaySaints was built just to the north of

Escatawpa at Wilson Springs. Thechurch community then grew withthe Assembly of God and Four MileBaptist Church and others came intobeing.

Old timers say Dutch Bayou wasnamed for the large number ofGerman families in the area.In addition to the families ofEuropean background, several blackfamilies also lived in the Dutch Bayousection and also organized a church.

According to Cirlot, old maps showthat the bayou was once called JerryMoutons Bayou, for a free black manwho lived there before the Civil War.Mouton was said to have been aslave on the plantation of LouisianasGovernor Mouton and had beenfreed.

Born and raised in the Dutch Bayouarea, Flora Lemaitre lives in thehouse built by her father-in-law, JoeLemaitre, when he returned from theCivil War. When it was over, hewalked here all the way fromVirginia, she said.

Another old home was the Nelsonhome, behind the First BaptistChurch. The Suthoff home, builtabout 1886, was moved to make wayfor Interstate 10 several years ago.Many generations of Escatawpaschildren have gone to school at thesame spot although the school hasbeen rebuilt at least three times. Thepresent six-grade EscatawpaElementary school, now part of theMoss Point School District, is on thesame property as the first publicschool.

ANALYSIS AND REVIEW


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Prentiss Nelson said that he went to atwo-story school in his youth, whichwas torn down and rebuilt about 1924when the county schools were beingconsolidated. The 1924 school, nearthe present school, was recentlyrazed.

Alton Goff, who went to school in themid-1920s, said the school once hadgrades one through 12. By the 1920s,there were only 10 grades. Graduallythe number of grades was reduced tosix when Escatawpa became part ofthe Moss Point School District. Foryears, the school went to the 10thgrade and youngsters traveled to MossPoint to finish high school.

The school as I knew it was a woodenstructure heated in winter by coalstoves, which were fired by Uncle EllisSherman, said Valeria Lopez Richard,who has written her memoirs ofEscatawpa in the Depression years.Mrs. Richard has placed in thePascagoula Public Library hermemoirs, which includes a list ofpeople living in Escatawpa and wherethey lived during the 1930s.

For a small place, even in the late1800s, Escatawpa had many storesand businesses. Early on, thecommunity had electric lights and amovie theatre for silent films, saylongtime residents.

The first person to put in electric lightswas Dr. Burnham, said nativeEscatawpan Flora Canfield Lemaitre.Mrs. Lemaitre recalls that a man wasonce electrocuted as a result of afaulty electrical line, causing a stir inthe community.

Among the most popular stores in theearly part of this century in Escatawpawere Dicksons, Nelsons, Goffs, andLemaitres. But there were others,over the years. We had anything youcould want, but we didnt have abank, said Mrs. Lemaitre. Today,Escatwapa has four banks in itsbustling business district.

After the Civil War, T.J. Dickson, Sr.came to Escatwapa from Meridianand opened a store on the mail road,now Mississippi 613. His son, T.J.Dickson Jr., also had a store in lateryears, with both operating at the sametime across the street form eachother. The Dickson grocery store andthe Dickson home, next door, wasonce destroyed by fire, old timers say.After his fathers death, the youngerDickson moved his grocery businessacross the river to Moss Point andbecame active in government there.The Lemaitre store was among themost long lived businesses in thecommunity, starting in 1911, aboutthree years before Ernest and FloraLemaitre married.

Mr. Lemaitre was Santa Clausheadquarters, as he specialized insmall toys and trinkets, as well assewing notions, groceries andhardware items, remembers ValeriaLopez Richard.

Also on Dutch Bayou Road was a drygoods store operated by HoraceNelson. His son, Lynn, had a smallgrocery store on present-dayMississippi 613.

Roland Goff, the father of retiredEscatawpa businessman Alton Goff,

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ran a grocery and meat market from1924 until 1947. Alton Goff worked withhis father from the time he was about10 years old and later opened a smalldepartment store.

I liked Escatawpa the way it was,said Alton Goff, who vividlyremembered the general store days inthe tough years of the 1930s. Peopleused to sit around, talk and laugh. Theydidnt know if they were going to eat,but they were happy, he said. I missthe closeness, Goff said.

The people were poor, Goffremembers from his youth. Therewerent more than 500 to 600 peopleand during the Depression, there wereonly about 14 cars running. Everyonehad a cow for milk. What they didntbuy here, they ordered from SearsRoebuck.

There were also smaller stores, suchas those run by Jesse Cunninghamand Herman R. Cropp. Cropp, whowas from the North, married Mrs.LeMaitres widowed mother, SophiaFritz Canfield, when Mrs. LeMaitre wasa baby.

Mrs. Lemaitre said Cropp also had agrind mill that provided meal for thestore. For a small fee, Cropp wouldalso grind corn for others. The countrypeople would bring in their corn. Wedgrind the corn for grits and the husk forthe stock, she said.

While most people grew much of theirfood, there were few who farmed for aliving. Many worked in the sawmills inFord and Moss Point and in otherlumber-related jobs.

Mrs. Emma Lopez recalled a mannamed Bounds had rice fieldsirrigated with artesian wells. Thefields were located on present dayMississippi 613 in the vicinity of theEscatawpa Quick Shop. We ate alot of rice, she said. Barney Smithhad a cane mill at the site of thePascagoula-Moss Point Bank andthere was also a turpentine still onthe property, now occupied by theEscatawpa Pharmacy and RogersAce Hardware.

Ed Nelson was the first person tobring in camellias and japonicas toEscatawpa. He brought so manythat he sold them to BellingrathGardens, Mrs. Lopez said. Theygrow everywhere now.

The 1870 Census of the DutchBayou, or Escatawpa area, shows avariety of occupations, including afew doctors, a dentist, aphotographer and even the CircuitClerk of Jackson County, H.Kirkwood. There were severalsailors, people involved inconstruction and a foundry operatedby L.M. Hand.

Later in the communitys history,there was neither a doctor nor adentist in Escatawpa. Dr. R.D. Eleyof Moss Point delivered many of thebabies of the community, as did AuntSarah Bardwell, a mid-wife, recallsMrs. Richard.

People say there were manybusinesses in the community,because of the poor travelingconditions in the days before bridges

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and good roads. Emma Lopez said hergrandmother, Clara Cunningham, whowas born in 1852, told her tales of ridingto Mobile, AL, with her father, JohnCunningham, to buy supplies. TheCunninghams lived in the vicinity ofLundy Williams Road.

The trip took two days and theCunninghams would have to camp outalong the Dog River at Dickens Ferry,near Hurley, before making the roundtrip.

Clara Cunningham passed downstories of the Civil War to herdescendants. Mrs. Lopez said ClaraCunningham was 12 years old whenthe Yankees came through Escatawpa.John Cunningham hid in the swamps,but his wife and daughters stayedbehind. The Cunninghams had noslaves, she said, and the Northernersdid not touch their property. But, shesaid, they traveled north to the ClarkPlantation, where there were manyslaves working and allegedly ravagedthe place.

Escatawpans used several ferries toreach other places. A ferry wasoperated over the river south to MossPoint until the late 1920s, when a bridgewas built.

My grandfather was the operator of theferry boat and I loved to ride across thewater with him, remembers Mrs.Richard. He didnt take me justanytime, only a special trip now andthen, she said. The fare was 15 cents.Ive lived to see three bridges built overthe river, said Mrs. Lemaitre. The firstbridge, a steel one, was opened in 1927with much fanfare. Lillian Nelson

Greenough, then an elementary schoolchild, was chosen by programorganizer Mrs. Albert Thompson, to cutthe ribbon. Virginia Eley, Dr. Eleysdaughter, broke a bottle of champagneacross the bridge.

Prentiss Nelson, 75, remembers thatthis bridge proved to be too narrow fortwo-way traffic and several years latera used steel bridge was brought to thearea from Biloxi. This bridge waslonger than was needed, but it was cutin half and welded together to make awider bridge. It was a toll bridge,Nelson said.

The third bridge over the Escatawpawas the new high-rise bridge officiallyopened in 1987 and dedicated todeceased Korean War hero, Jack G.Hansen.

Before the 1940s, travel betweenEscatawpa and points south was stilltough. Prentiss Nelson said once onegot off the ferry, or the bridge, therewere only one wagon sawdust roadsinto Moss Point. Getting bogged downin the boggy land on either side of theroad if one had to pull off for traffic wasnot uncommon. In the 1940s, sandwas pumped into the area to widen thethoroughfare.

The people who lived through timeswhen their community was oftenisolated from the cities to the Southsay that in retrospect times were hard,but it was not so bad. Today,Escatawpa seems to be nearly self-sufficient with many businesses,service providers and small industries,including several thriving boat yards.Many Escatawpans say that by

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working together, which has alwaysbeen the spirit of the community, thattimes can be even better.

FORTS LAKE The body of waterthat gave this tranquil spot in easternJackson County its name is hidden fromview on a springtime drive.

Along Forts Lake Road, the deepgreens of thickly wooded patches arebrightened with splashes of yellow andviolet wildflowers. Pink and fuschiaazaleas grow profusely on the nearlytrimmed lawns of the modern, brickhomes that occasionally dot the rurallandscape.

The lake, named for a family namedFort who owned land here, lies to thewest of Cherry Valley Road, shroudedby tall oaks and thick underbrush. Theone-half acre lake, about 40 yards fromBig Creek and fed by a branch calledCollins Creek, lies partially on HenryTaylors land.

Years ago, it was a pretty good sizelake, but it has filled in quiet a bit sincethen, Taylor said. Its a clear lake,pretty water.

Taylor said dirt from local excavationswas washed into the lake through thebranch, causing the area of the lake togrow smaller over the years.

He points to clusters of chopped logsfloating at the edges of the lake that arereminders of timbering days here.They (the logs) werent sawed. Theywere chopped. They were left from thedays that the logs were floated down thecreeks to the sawmills, he said. Taylorsaid he has removed many of the logs

and noticed that they were marked byXs meaning 10 feet.In the mid-1800s, the largest sawmillin the area was owned by J.S. Dees,a few miles up the Escatawpa Riveron Jackson Creek. From 1849 to1850, reports show that over twomillion board feet of lumber wasprocessed at the Dees Mill.

Jackson County deeds show thatearly landowners in this part ofJackson County were Mark Dees,Calvin Dees and Drewery AlamanzaFort, who together claimed a sectionof land north of the lake in the late1850s.

Drewery Alamanza Forts parents,Lester and Betsy Kemp Fort, hadmigrated to Grand Bay, AL, ViaGeorgia and Edgefield District, S.C.He married Jane Tippins Dees, thedaughter of Calvin E. and MaryCharlotte Tippins Dees. About 1871,Jane T. Fort acquired the tract of landthat includes the lake. Whether theForts actually lived on the property isunknown, but the Dees family werethe earliest settlers of the desolatearea.

The community we know today asForts Lake is so close to the stateline that boundary disputes oftencaused confusion over whether someproperty was in Mississippi orAlabama. Often the census takerswere uncertain too.

There are stories that the Forts-Deeskin may have had a sawmill on thelake.

Old Jackson Creek Cemetery, with

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burials of Dees relatives that date backto the early 1850s, gives evidence to thesettlement of the community.

Many people bought land around FortsLake for investment purposesthroughout the late 1800s, including menwith Ocean Springs ties like horticulturistWilliam Sigerson and real estate manNewcomb Clark, but there were still fewinhabitants at the turn of the century.Landbuyers in the early 1900s were JeffD. Jones, Morrell Maples and WilliamRufus Clark, followed by Rufus Maples,Bud Pool, Robert DeMouey, John Lyons,Reuben Edgar Lyons and Tommy Clark.William Rufus Clark moved to FortsLake when his sawmills and farm atBayou Heron were destroyed in the 1906hurricane. Clarks granddaughter BettyRodgers said that Clark left his familywith relatives and cut his way norththrough thick oaks and pine forests. Hispath became a road to meet the UnionChurch-Government Street Road fromMobile, AL, to property he had acquiredseveral years before. There heestablished another sawmill, a home forthe family (which would grow to 10children) and began farming.

Later, Clark, who eventually ownedthousands of acres around easternJackson County, donated property onthe hill for a community cemetery and aone-room school, which doubled as anondenominational church. Clarks infantson, Joseph was the first person to beburied at that spot.

Unless you were born and raised here,or you came from some of the old timefamilies, you cant get a (cemetery) lotthere, explained one of the oldest living

residents, Mrs. Alfred Hurd. Mrs. Hurd,the daughter of Reuben Lyons, recallsstories of the lumbering and turpentinebusiness in the vicinity. But peoplemostly farmed.

Mrs. Hurd moved with her family toForts Lake in 1921 and went to theone-room school there until severalsmall schools were consolidated at aschool William Rufus Clark helped tobuild at Pecan in 1926. The woodenchurch-school building later burned.The Lyons family once lived on FortsLake and sold the property to Taylor.The only church in the community isForts Lake Assembly of God,established in the 1940s under theguidance of pastor C.D. Cauley. Someresidents go to Baptist churches inneighboring Franklin Creek, or in UnionChurch, AL, Mrs. Hurd said.Descendants of the few originalfamilies recall picnics at JacksonCreek, molasses pulls and squaredances in this close knit, sparselysettled community of a few hundredfamilies. Most of the property has beensold to relatives, or inherited fromfather to son. Weve got such a goodplace here, Mrs. Hurd said. We haveto know people pretty good to talk usout of a little piece of land.Weve got an extra niceneighborhood. Everyone is friendly,Mrs. Hurd said.

A volunteer fire department that servesboth the Forts Lake and FranklinCreek area is the only hub of socialactivity for the community. A majorevent is the country fair, thedepartment has every fall as a fund-raiser.

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There are no business here andresidents shops in Mobile orPascagoula. In the 1950s, Mrs. MinnieHurd opened a grocery store for theconvenience of the locals, but it closeda short while later.

When Owen Davis was sheriff, thiswas such a quiet place that he neverhad to have to send a car into thecommunity, remarked James E. Clark,another grandchild of William RufusClark, who still lives on the formerfamily farm off Forts Lake Road.Clark grows some vegetables, butmostly raises cattle, in addition toworking at International PaperCompany. He says few people make aliving from the land at Forts Lake now.Its a hobby forh me, he said.

In the past, most of the winding, narrowroads that branch off Forts Lake Roadwere nameless. People familiar with thearea associated them with the familieswho lived there.

About 10 years ago, while the JacksonCounty Planning Commission wasgiving street addresses to the ruralcommunities, it was decided to giveForts Lake an identity by naming thestreets with a central theme. Namesreminiscent of the nations earlyfounding were chosen, like Constitution,Congress, Revere and Mount Vernon.Although the names were historical,some old timers at Forts Lake did notthink the names reflected the history oftheir community very well. But residentsquietly negotiated to keep Maples Lane(or Loop) the same. All the Mapleseslived there and it loops out to FortsLake, Clark said.

HARLESTONMotorists whizby downtown Harleston on two-laneMississippi 613 without knowing theyhave ever been there. Along therailroad tracks and what should havebeen Harlestons main street, thereare a few houses, a wooden churchand a few blocks south, a store.Harleston, located a few miles southof George County in JacksonCountys northeast corner, is aplanned community that never reallycame into being. Over the years, ithas remained a scattered, sparselysettled, mostly agricultural area.The towns future and that of itsneighboring communities of BigPoint and Hurley was bright in theearly 1900s, when the towns werelaid out on the route of the Alabamaand Mississippi Railroad, now knownas the Mississippi Export Railroad.

The timber business was recoveringfrom the devastation of the 1900hurricane, and logs were transportedon the railroad or floated down theEscatawpa River.

But the stock market crash of 1929had a devastating effect on theindustry and on the growth ofHarleston.

There was no market for the timber.The paper mill shut down. I guess Iran the last logs that were ran, said77-year-old Haas Hinton, who haslived most of his life in the Hurley-Harleston area.

Hinton said when the stock marketplummeted, the farmers thought ithad no bearing on their lives,

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because they had no money invested inthe market. Then when their cotton andother crops did not sell, They realizedthat the stock market did havesomething to do with them, Hinton said.

During the Depression of the 1930s,moonshine liquor was a mainstay of theeconomy for some of the people wholived in the remote area. That wasprobably their only cash crop, explainedLawrence Hubbard, who grew up in thearea. Livestock and vegetables were notselling. Orchards of satsuma orangesthat had been planted for export whenthe railroad came through had beenkilled by deep freezes about 1916.

When the first settlers moved into thearea in the 1850s, they lived in a woodedarea around todays southeast portion ofTanner Williams Road. In 1912, theAlabama and Mississippi Railroad wasbeing built to connect from Alabama toPascagoula. Railroad surveyor, OlneyHarleston Broun, planned and namedseveral towns around the railroad depotson the route. One of these wasHarleston, which he named for hisgrandmothers family. Olney HarlestonBrouns grandparents were AnnHarleston, a descendant of an oldCharleston, S.C., family, and ArchibaldBroun Jr. The Brouns moved from SouthCarolina to Mobile in 1833.

Born in 1858 in Selma, Ala., OlneyHarleston Broun was the son ofArchibald and Anns son, Seaman DeasBroun and Sarah Reynolds.A plat of Harleston in the JacksonCounty Chancery Clerks office plannedby Broun shows the depot locatedbetween Front and Main streets.

Hundreds of small lots were drawnfrom First Street to Eighth Street. Today,people who own property in the oldHarleston townsite pay taxes accordingto these lots, but the street names androads Broun planned nevermaterialized.

A post office, co-op feed mill, grist mill,doctors office and drug store andmercantile and general stores openedin Harlestons business district near thedepot. Several sawmills owned by theDavises, Galloways and Overstreetsbuzzed with activity. Nannie Gallowaywas the last postmistress, serving thepeople from the porch of her home,before the post office was discontinuedin 1925. Today, people in Harlestonreceive mail as Route 1, Lucedale.They say it is confusing and they wouldrather be part of a Jackson Countyroute.

In the 1950s, many of the old structuresin the town were torn down. Thematerials in many of them wererecycled and used for other buildingsaround the county. An old home stillstanding on Tanner Williams Road, offMississippi 613, is the former home ofDr. Ernest Absolom Denson, whofaithfully served the area as its onlydoctor between 1918 and 1929. Hewas a good doctor, I realize that now,one of the main men that learned howto doctor those fevers, Hintonremembers. He even pulled teeth, ifthey needed it.

In the 1930s, several Danish familiesmoved near Harleston, and with hardwork and know-how cultivated the landinto rich farms.

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Civilization came slowly to Harleston.We didnt get electricity out here untilthe 1940s. We didnt know there wassuch a thing as a blacktop road, recallsRuth Davis Payne, a retired nurse whohas lived in the George County-Jackson County area much of her life.She and her husband, William, live on avast tract carved from the 160 acres herfather, Prentis Davis, homesteaded in1904.

Mrs. Paynes mother was thegranddaughter of a Scotsman AlexGalloway, one of northeast JacksonCountys early settlers. A story handeddown in the Galloway family tells aboutGalloways many trips back to his nativeScotland, when he brought backWedgewood dishes and a beautifulgrandfathers clock. On his last trip,Mrs. Payne said, he and a friend wereshipwrecked and had to swim ashore.They were marooned in Greenland formonths until another ship could takethem home. The family did not hearfrom Galloway for a year and thought hewas dead. When Galloway returned,very much alive, he was home to stay.Galloway is listed as a founder of theoldest church in the community,Rosedale Methodist, along with his sonsJohn and Robert and David McDonald,Alfred Davis, M.L. Hamilton, M.J. Marble,Charles Ely and John C. Ely. Rosedalewas named in 1885 because of the wildroses that grew profusely in a nearbyfield. But a congregation of Methodistshad been organized in the area as the1850s, the church history says.

We had box suppers at the church.The girls would fix a lunch and if youhad a boyfriend, other men would bid

against him to raise the price. It wasa lot fun then, she said. There weresquare dances in the community,too, but the parents of many of theyoung people in the communityfrowned on dancing.

The Mississippi Export Railroad oncehad a daily passenger coach andpeople in Harleston often used it totravel to Lucedale or Pascagoula.Tanner Williams Road was the majorroute to Mobile.

Mrs. Paynes grandfather, RobertCook Galloway, and his sons wouldtravel into Alabama over the dirt roadto buy supplies. It would take them aday to reach Mobile and a day to getback and meant an overnight stay.Now you can get there in an hour,she said.

About 1930, a dirt road was cut alongthe railroad tracks linking Harlestonwith a direct route to Hurley anddesignated as Mississippi 63. In the1940s, the road was asphalt and waslater renamed Mississippi 613.

HELENA-An old Germanmoved here and he had a wifenamed Lena, recounted Ollie Vice,Jr. Their house was along whereKings Road comes out to SarraceniaRoad through the meadow. It used tobe wet up through there.

Vice explained that the weather wasbad, the land was boggy and the oldGerman was having a terrible timeworking his fields. This is hell,Lena! the man reportedly told hiswife. Its an old saying Ive heard allmy life, but this is how they told me

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that Helena got it name, 72-year-oldVice chuckles.

But the old Germans hell has beenparadise to the people who have lived inHelena for generations. If you go off,youre sorry you ever left, Vice said.

Some who have lived here have comeand gone. Other say it is their home forlife.

I worked in Texas in a veneer mill for 5years, but I kept looking back this way,while I was there, Ollie Vice said. Hiscousin Frank Vice is smug. I never leftand never intend to, he says.

Ollie Vices father, Ollie Vice, Sr., andFrank Vices father, Carley Titter Vicewere among the five sons of Ben Vice,an early settler, who had a blacksmithshop and grocery store on SarraceniaRoad. Toy, Coda and Ben were the othersons. Vice descendants andconnections are plentiful around Helena.The Vices, along with the McDowell,Hans, Jones, Coleman, Youngs, Easleyand Parker clans, had settled in thecommunity now called Helena beforethe turn-of-the-century. Gradually, otherslike the Raffs, Schroubs, Lees, Coxes,Bordners, and McKenzies (to name afew) came here from other parts of thecountry.

In 1910, the Riviera Reality Company ofKendallville, IN, purchased large tractsof land in the area for futuredevelopment from the heirs of AlexanderRaff. The next year, the company platteda town named Helena on 320 acresnorth of Black Creek, along SarraceniaRoad to the railroad track. While thenumber of people living around Helena

has grown steadily since 1910, thecommunity never incorporated and didnot develop into an actual town. Butthere has always been a few storesand other businesses along SarraceniaRoad, the main street.

1910 also marked the start of Helenasfirst post office. Postal records showthat Thomas S. Brooks was thecommunitys first postmaster. But in1911, Charles Lee took the job andkept it up until 1923 when John W.Young and John B. Williams shared theduties. Albert Miller was a longtime mailcarrier. By 1924, the post office atHelena was closed and the communitywas served by the Escatawpa PostOffice.

Helena was never a rich, farmingcommunity, but it was the site of manycitrus and pecan orchards, in the early1900s. The Cox Orchard, HansOrchard and the nearby Lily Orchard inthe Nutbank area were oncesuccessful.

Others raised stock and engaged intimbering and raising a few crops fortheir own table. There were severalsawmills, one of which Ollie Vice stilloperates a shingle mill and severalstores. The J.W. Young & Son GeneralStore was operated out of anabandoned camp car that had a falsefront.

He has always been particularly fond ofthe oxen that were used in every phaseof country life, from working in theforest to going to church, and still has aherd of oxen on his place. I wasfollowing an ox team at the time Ishould have been going to school, he

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remarked. He enjoys hitching the oxteams to the old log wagon he used as aboy and showing them off in paradesand old settlers events.

My uncle and my daddy chopped pinesaplings and loaded them for the oldEscatawpa River Bridge. They put thedirt over the pine saplings, because theground was marshy and wet, Ollie Vicesaid. With the same method, they alsobuilt Coda Road and the bridge overBlack Creek on the road.

The citrus crop failed, pecans becameunprofitable and the timber supplydwindled. The people of Helena had touse their ingenuity to make a living. TheDepression years were particularly hard.We all worked on the WPA. We neverfarmed, but we had cows and hogs andgame. The families would take turnsbutchering a hog and share it. Wehustled around and made some moneyto buy flour. We always had plenty toeat, Frank Vice said.

About 1913, parents were becomingincreasingly concerned about the lack ofa school in the area. Sarracenia School,which had served the children who livedeast of the railroad tracks, had recentlyburned. Youngsters who lived west of thetracks were taught in a room behind BenVices store, by Miss Frannie Brooks.We were seven families on the southside of the creek and eight families onthe north side, with a swimming holeacross the way. Years later, they built abridge, Frank Vice said. After severalcommunity meetings, the peopledecided to erect a school building.Eventually its used was expanded to thatof a church, town hall and a votingprecinct.

Denise Kay Moore of Gautier, whohas done extensive research onHelenas history, described thoseearly efforts. She said that CharlesLee, who was elected supervisor ofthe project, negotiated the purchaseof one-and-one-half acres of landsouth of the creek from Riviera Realtyfor $1. Residents and businesses inthe vicinity donated cash and buildingsupplies. The Vice-brothers usedtheir oxen to haul lumber from theswamp to the railroad nearSarracenia Road. Most of thecarpentry work was done by CharlesLee and Jules McKenzie.J.L.Williams was the ax man. P.F.Williams sawed the boards. WalterWilliams and Homer Jones handledthe roofing shingles. To raise enoughmoney to order a bell for the buildingfrom Sears Roebuck, thecongregation had a minstrel showand ice cream supper. After it arrived,via boxcar, Charles Lee made thebelfry. It was not until halfway into thesecond term that the children wereprovided with desks.

Mrs. Moores research show thatMiss Ethel Reeves was the firstteacher; followed by Miss VernaOdom, Mrs. Jewel Glass, Mrs. Carter,Vivian Shirley and Helena McKenzie.Frank Vice says that his mother,Maggie Vice, Mrs. John Berry andHenry Eckhoff, also taught at theschool. Today, children in Helenaattend Moss Point schools.

The community also gathered in thenew Helena school for frequentchildrens plays and rallies.Frequently on Saturday nights,

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groups would also gather at one houseor another and have dances onSaturday nights. It was a way of peoplegetting together. But we would quit atmidnight. We didnt dance on Sunday,Frank Vice said.

The distinctive feature of Helena in thisperiod was its ecumenical andcooperative community spirit. Becausethere was no church there in the early1900s, residents of all faiths attendedservices in Andrew B. Coxs barn, withcircuit preachers of severaldenominations preaching.

We didnt know what a denominationwas then, said Frank Vice. Methodistand Presbyterian were the major faiths,with a few Baptists and at least oneRoman Catholic family in thecommunity. In 1911, they formed thenondenominational religious organizationcalled Union Sunday School, whichbecame the nucleus for the religious,educational and social activities of thecommunity.

After a few years, the people who wereworshipping in Coxs barn decided thatthe school would also be ideal for jointservices. This is the way it was for thenext few generations. By about 1953 thePresbyterians pulled away and formed aseparated congregation.Ollie Vice Jr. said that material washauled from Camp Shelby nearHattiesburg and the church was built atits present site. When the Presbyterianshad left, the Methodists organized andcontinued to worship in the communitybuilding. By December 1957, they hadbuilt their own church, which wasnamed Lee Methodist Chapel, then Lee

Memorial Methodist Chapel, after thethen-oldest member of thecongregation, Mrs. Charles Lee.Although a few Baptists had attendedthe interdenominational services, therewere not enough people at that time toform a separate church. In 1958, a fewBaptist families began meeting in thehome of Clarence Davis on CarnationStreet. The people named their church,Black Creek Baptist Church, andbegan planning towards their ownbuilding someday. Until a church couldbe built, they met in the old communitybuilding. By 1964, the congregation,now called the First Baptist Church ofHelena, had its first services in theirfirst church building. Five years later, anew sanctuary was built on the site ofWildwood Road.

If there is a single spot in Helena thatsymbolized the cultural, religious andeducational history of the community, itis the old community center. Mostpeople here have happy memories of75-year-old building that has beenrepaired and modernized over theyears. When its use as a school andchurch was over, a day care andnursery school was opened in thisbuilding, where Helena voters still castballots.

It is this building that embodies thevery spirit of this quiet Jackson Countyspot, where people enjoy a peacefullife, without being far from the cities. Ifthe old German were alive today, heprobably would have changed hismind.

HURLEY- In the early 1970s,

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people in this small northeast JacksonCounty community fought to keep theirpost office-and they still would not dreamof giving it up. People here reallyappreciate the post office. Pascagoula isabout 25 miles away. They are happythat they can come here and transactany business that they can inPascagoula, said Hurleys postmasterFrances Allen. Having a post office of itsown and boxes where their mail will besafe has been a source of pride here formore than 90 years. In 1895, a youngman named William George Mizelleaccepted a deal with the US PostalService that led to the creation of Hurley.Mizelle was to pick up the mail at theformer county seat of Americus onCedar Creek without pay for six months;with the agreement that the communitythen considered part of the Big Pointarea could have a post office. Mizellealso gave Hurley its name. As the firstpostmaster, he was sent a list of namesuggestions for the new post office bythe government, said his son, the Rev.Grady Mizelle. From the choices, heultimately selected the name Hurley aftera well-known Northern sawmill man,after whom a town in Wisconsin hadalready been named. Mizelle had a smallsawmill himself and the name wasappropriate because the timber businesswas then a major mainstay of theeconomy in the area. In the late 1800sand the early 1900s, the DennyCompany owned large tracts ofundeveloped land, which they used forlumbering activities and built a smallspur line to move the wood to theirsawmills at Moss Point. Mizelle waspostmaster until 1914, when his wife,Susan Crawford Mizelle, took the job

until the mid-1920s. The post officehad been an important part of thelives of the Mizelles and when thefamily and others in the communitylearned that there was a movementto close it, they did all that they couldto stop the wheels of governmentfrom turning in that direction. Theyhad closed the Wade post office andHurley was next in line, Mizelle said.Grady Mizelle and his late son-in-law,Benny Randall, led the effort. TrentLott really helped a lot and so didDoug Luce of Lucedale, Mizelleremembers. Randall wrote lettersand went to Washington. Theygathered names on a petition. Thepost office not only stayed, a newbuilding was authorized. Today, somepeople still get their mail on aPascagoula rural route, while otherspick it up at the Hurley post office,which has its own zip code - 39555.

Recently, State Rep. Frank Elydiscussed with federal officials thepossibility of expanding the postoffice, to keep up with the growth ofthe area. While the population is notbooming, there has been a steadystream of newcomers moving intothe Hurley area among the oldfamilies like the Mizelles, Colemans,Barias, Carters, Parkers and others.There are a lot of people coming upthis way. It has been a nice place tolive and there is a good schoolsystem up here, said businessmanJerry Tanner. A string of shops andstores have opened on Hurleys mainstreet, Mississippi 613, in the pastfew years. Everything is moving thisway. Were only 17 miles fromdowntown Mobile and 25 miles from

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31

the courthouse, Grady Mizelle said. Inspite of tries at earlier development of atown, Hurley has remained mostly ascattered, rural settlement. Denny soldabout 50 acres in the heart of the area toLampton Reality in 1910 and thecompany platted the land into a townalong the Mississippi Export Railroadtracks for the planned town of Hurley.The 451 lots were small, 50-by-165 feet,and some people bought more than one,retaining the rural character of thecommunity. But many houses arelocated in what was to have been thetownsite. The coming of the north-southrailroad from Vinegar Bend, AL, toPascagoula was to have been a boon toHurleys development. But this failed tofully materialize. From 1909 when therailroad went through until World War II,a passenger coach stopped at the long-closed Hurley Railroad Depot, bringingpeople to Pascagoula and othercommunities in Jackson County. Themail was delivered by train then, too.Mizelle remembers as a child, trainloadsof people coming from 36 states to anAssembly of God conference at Hurleyabout 1912 or 1913. He is retired afterbeing pastor of Magnolia SpringsAssembly of God Church for 41 years.Magnolia Springs Campgrounds is thesite of camp meetings every July. Inaddition, Hurley has a United MethodistChurch, two Baptist Churches and aCatholic Church. Retired teacher,Mildred Mizelle, the daughter of W.G. andSusan Mizelle, said Hurley and itsneighboring community, Wade, to thewest, have always been closelyconnected, but they have enjoyedkeeping their separate identities. Whenthe local schools were to have been

consolidated, there was a little rivalry,Miss Mizelle said. Neither place wantedthe school to be named after the otherand to compromise, the school wascalled East Central, as it istoday.Weve always cooperatedbeautifully together, Miss Mizelle said.

ORANGE GROVETheorchards of sweet golden fruit thatgave their name to the JacksonCountys southeastern mostcommunity are long gone, but the areais still known as Orange Grove.The once-prized satsuma orange cropmet a gradual death over the yearsfrom freezing temperatures, hurricanewinds and saltwater floods.Today, about 1,550 people live in thisquiet, mostly residential area nestledaround the railroad tracks andintersected by U.S. 90.

Some Orange Grove residents live onlarge plots of land, separated by tallpine thickets, where their families havebeen for many years. Newcomershave come here to live in less crowdedsurroundings.

For about half a century, when therewas a post office and railroad depot atOrange Grove, the community thrived.

The Old Spanish Trail, now OldHighway 90, was a major artery andthe coming of the railroad in the late1870s brought more commerce intothe tiny rural settlement. Oldnewspaper ads mention businessthere that catered to travelers, like theTaketa Cabin, a tea room and fillingstation of about 60 years ago.

ANALYSIS AND REVIEW


32

But there are few businesses at OrangeGrove now, except a gas station, somescattered night-spots and mobile homeparks.

The first landowner around present-dayOrange Grove was probably David K.Murrary, who had been living in nearbyAlabama and received a U.S. land patentfor vast acreage in 1857. For years, hissettlement was called Murrays Station.When the post office was created in1876, the place was christened OrangeGrove. David Murrays son, AndrewJackson Murray, who spent most of hislife in the community, became the firstpostmaster in his early 20s.

By the early 1870s, the Clark, Bosarge,Dixon, Ladnier, Trehern, Brown, andBang families settled around theMurrays. Their childrens names appearon Jackson Countys earliest existingschool rolls. Later the Cowarts, Millers,and Robertses came to the community.

People who knew Orange Grove aroundthe time of World War I remember thatan old schoolhouse was located north ofthe present Orange Grove Cemetery.Later, youngsters attended the OrangeLake School between Orange Grove andits northeastern neighbor, Pecan.

In the 1890s Dr. Charles Leuba ofKentucky brought his family to OrangeGrove and tended to the medical needsof the area. A decade earlier, aTennessee native, Dr. James P. Dancer,had been the only physician in thecommunity.

Leubas daughter, Fannie Leuba Pierce,was postmistress from 1903 to 1906and his wife, Pauline Leuba, served from1907 to 1913, when Fannie Pierce took

over again. Alice Roberts was the lastpostmistress in 1914, before the postoffice was closed and Orange Groveresidents had to take their businessto Kreole, two miles to the west. Butfor many years after that, the votingpolls were placed in Mrs. Robertsyard, on the northside of US 90,recalls her granddaughter VeraJones.

Orange Grove was a pretty boomingcommunity. There were severalstores, a post office and a bakeshop.Probably its best years were betweenthe late 1800s and the 1920s. Then itwent down, said Orange Grovenative Mrs. Bettie Switzer McLeod,granddaughter of Dr. Lueba. Herfather, C.D. Switzer and her uncle,Valerie Pierce, were both stationagents at Orange Grove. Her mother,Eva Switzer, was once a wirelessoperator at the station.

An economic mainstay for manyyears was the J.W. Miller sawmill,located near Shingle Mill Landing. Butthe exhaustion of the timber in thearea and Millers death brought a haltto the industry.

I.P. Delmas planted an extensivepecan orchard at Orange Grove inthe early 1900s, which continued toflourish for many years after Mrs. C.V.Moore of Pascagoula bought theproperty.

Mrs. McLeod remembers the heavydestruction of the July 5, 1916hurricane vividly.

Mr. Andrew Murray came up and toldus that a storm was coming. Some ofthose old people could tell things like

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that by just watching the birds fly. Heknew it before it came over the wireless,she said. He was a good neighbor.

It was a tidal wave and our yard wasflooded, but the railroad tracks were highground, she said.

The Pascagoula Chronicle said thatwinds ranging from 100 to 125 miles perhour blew most of the day and more than10 inches of rain fell. About $300,000damage to crops, timber and orchardswas reported in Jackson County and itwashed out some of the tracks nearOrange Grove.

By the late 1920s, the once promisingcommunity of Orange Grove was ondecline. Kreole with its busy paper milland business section was becoming acenter of trade and the railroad depot atOrange Grove was no longer needed.The railroad station closed in 1936. Only20 years old, the building had beenrebuilt in 1916, after it was heavilydamaged in a hurricane six years before.By then, Orange Grove was mainly afarming community of about 125 peoplewith syrup and pecans being theprincipal products.

In 1941, the station was torn down.But several years ago, thisinconspicuous little community had itsclaim to national fame. Local historianBetty Rodgers said the notice camefrom Orange Lake, a large body of waterlocated north of U.S. Highway 90 thatwas created from a dirt pit from highwayconstruction in the 1920s. The lake wascited in Ripleys Believe It Or Not as theworlds only known man-made springwater lake.

ANALYSIS AND REVIEW


35POLICIES AND STRATEGIES

SGrowth Policies & Strategies

Strategies related to land use need to address a number of topics. Land use decisions thatwill be made over the next two decades will have a lasting impact on the Countys strengthsand quality of life.

Comment: Jackson Countys residential neighborhoods are a major strength of the area.One of the goals of this plan is the continued maintenance and improvement of residentialareas. The County should ensure the future land use changes and developments respectexisting neighborhood areas.The County should protect neighborhoods from nonresi-dential uses encroaching into the area through the establishment of buffers, screens, andzoning districts.

Comment: These mixed-use areas would have to be developed under a Planned UnitDevelopment approach which would give the County more control over the developmentand how it develops.

Comment: Create a neighborhood business district near the intersection of Hwy 613 andHwy 614 for high quality commercial development in accordance with zoning code C-1.This strategy will require public private partnerships to develop new off highway publicroads to reduce congestion and facilitate traffic flow along the two state highways. Thisstrategy will have the added benefit of providing additional frontage property on publicroadways for commercial development.

Comment: Create a new business / retail district near the Interstate 10 exit at Forts Lakethrough proper zoning. With the availability of restaurants, retail shopping and multi-familyhousing, this area would be viable due to its proximity to I-10 and major employers suchas Chevron.

Comment: Although the Eastern Jackson County land use plan (map A) will show newzoning codes for many areas that are currently zoned A-1 Agriculture, the decision tochange to the new zoning code will require initiation by the property owners. Currentowners may continue using property under existing zoning codes until such time asthey decide it more advantageous to re-zone their property in accordance with the

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36 POLICIES AND STRATEGIES

HOUSING

land use plan.

Comment: The County Planning Department should discourage attempts to re-zone prop-erty when not in harmony with the land use plan.

Comment: Current zoning codes are not tailored to meet community expectations of ruralresidential development. Creation of a new R-5 zoning code for rural subdivisions wouldallow a more tailored approach which encourages responsible development of rural ar-eas while maintaining the character of the area.

Housing is influenced by national, state, and local policies and conditions. Jackson Countyhas some impact on housing, principally through housing policies, land use planning andregulation.

Comment: Jackson Countys Planning Department, Planning Commission and Board ofCounty Commission should strive to ensure that future ordinances are designed to achievelocally identified goals without increasing the cost of housing.

Comment: The County should aggressively enforce all structure and property mainte-nance codes, as appropriate. Maintaining quality neighborhoods is important in keepingJackson County a desirable place to live.

Comment: The County should allow the development of single family dwelling units on anindividual lot of record existing as of March 30, 2009 on existing water and sewer whichcomply with the other regulatory requirements of the Codes and applicable state law. Theboundaries of qualifying lots of record may be adjusted to provide for more efficient and/or workable development plans where two or more of these lots are contiguous only ifestablished density does not increase and the established type of development doesnot change.

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Comment:The County should protect those elements which currently make it special. Inorder to maintain and enhance the current residents quality of life, the County must main-tain certain areas in their current state without allowing them to abruptly change to a moreintensive use.

Comment: Current zoning codes are not tailored to meet community expectations of ruralresidential development. Creation of a new R-5 zoning code for rural subdivisions wouldallow a more tailored approach which encourages responsible development of rural ar-eas while maintaining the character of the area.

Comment: Create the possibility for higher density rural subdivisions of 2 houses peracre while requiring the use of X mile buffers surrounding any R-5b high density ruralsubdivisions. This approach will allow development of some dispersed, higher densitysubdivisions in the rural areas. R-5b subdivisions would be limited to XX lots.

Parks and open space are important components of the land use pattern in the County. Theparks and recreation section of the Comprehensive Plan identifies needs for future parkimprovements.

Comment: The Group discussed the area around Browns Bridge as an ideal location fora new park.

Comment: Addition of quality boat launches and sufficient parking areas on the two riversin the area would provide more recreational opportunities by allowing more residentsaccess to boating and fishing.

Comment: The County Planning Department could encourage new subdivisions to setaside small amounts of land as common areas to serve as open space, communitygathering places, or parks for the children to play.

HOUSING

RECREATION &OPEN SPACE

POLICIES AND STRATEGIES


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RECREATION &OPEN SPACE Comment: The County already requires developers to provide sidewalks; however, the

County may consider allowing the developer only in small lot developments to providewalking trails throughout the common areas in a Conservation Subdivision as an alterna-tive to sidewalks.

Comment: This activity alone could be a part of an economic development strategy tostimulate the Countys ecotourism industry which is presently under utilized.

Comment: Development of hiking, biking and camping areas in the Pascagoula WildlifeManagement area or the Grand Bay National Estuary would provide more recreationalopportunities for homeowners and improve the quality of life for residents.

Comment: Walking, jogging and biking along busy county roads or state highways isdangerous. Development of a series of walking or biking trails throughout the areawould allow for safer outdoor activities.

Jackson Countys transportation system will need to change significantly as its populationgrows. The Mississippi Department of Transportation and the local Metropolitan PlanningOrganization seem to keep track of the federal roads and the Countys Road Departmentmanages to maintain and improve the local roadways. However, many of the local roadslack the appropriate right-of-way and shoulders. Additionally, there are few sidewalks orareas where bikers can safely travel throughout the County.

Comment: The County should have some idea where future roads should be built sothat when property is developed, it allows future roadways to be integrated into thedevelopment instead of having developments hamper or handicap the possibility forfuture roadways.

Comment: Require the developers to pay for the acceleration and deceleration lanes

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on the major roadways, in order to prevent accidents from occuring because of thisdevelopment.

Comment: The County should seek federal, state and regional public assistance to helppay for major transportation improvements in the area.

[Insert appropriate comments to bolster this important strategy]

Comment: The Group expressed concern over the potential of neighborhood businessdistricts possibly extending for miles along major roadways. Creating an off-highwaybusiness district at the intersection of Hwy 613 and Hwy 614 would allow for more neigh-borhood commercial property while diminishing highway congestion. This strategy willrequire public private partnerships to develop new off highway public roads.

Adequate roads, schools, utilities and other public infrastructure are vital components to asuccessful and well managed community. Jackson County is directly involved in supplyingpublic services in the areas of police, fire and public works. However, many of the publicservices such as state highways, schools, electricity, telephone, water and sewer distributionare not provided through County government. Since the County plays both direct andindirect roles in overseeing the adequacy of these services, it is important that acomprehensive strategy be in place before commercial and residential development takesplace.

Comment: The Capital Improvement Plan should be used to establish priorities for theallocation of funds and the initiation of purchase and projects. This annual analysis shouldcontain existing funds and specified needs for future equipment and facilities.

Comment: Jackson County has an excellent educational system in place. The County

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PUBLIC SERVICESAND UTILITIES



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should meet periodically with the Jackson County School Board to ensure that countypublic services meet their needs. The County should continue joint programming ofrecreational activities with the school district.

Comment: The Jackson County Planning Commission should consult with local schoolofficials to ensure that future development will not significantly overburden school infra-structure.

Comment: With the Trent Lott International Airport having the prestige of being one of thefew airports in the Country to allow unmanned aerial flights, the County must ensure thatit prohibits intrusive development near the airport so that the aeronautical industryspotential to thrive in this area is not hampered in any way.

PUBLIC SERVICESAND UTILITIES



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[This Page Reserved for Additional Policies & Strategies]


Old River Road

Gautier-Vancleave Road

Bayou Road

Poticaw

Ferry

Cro

ssing

Lad

ni er R

oad

Do

l ph

in D

r

GravelineRoad

Hwy 90

Pkwy

Ro

adP

oint

Westgate

Martin Bluf

f

Ro

ad

Gau

tier-

Van

clea

veR

oad

Old

Riv

er R

oad

Ing

alls

Acc

ess

Ro

ad

Fre

der

ic S

t

Home Po

rt

Causew

ay Dupont Ave

Lake Ave

Convent Ave

Krebs Ave

14th

St

Mag

no

lia S

t

Pas

cag

ou

la S

t

Mar

ket

St

Beach Blvd

Elder

Rabby St

Grif

fin R

oad

Fran

k

Road

townJames

Ferry

ElderAve

Sherlawn St

Griffin S

t

Jefferson Ave

Mac

ph

elah

St

Mai

n S

t

Ave

Bellview Ave McInnis

Ed

en S

t

Ingalls Ave

Denn

y Ave

Old

Ho

spi t

al S

t

Dutch Bayou Road

Ave

Saracen

nia R

oad

Wildwood Road

Wilso

n Springs Road

Dr Martin Luther King Blvd

Short

Cut R

oad

Griers

on St

Elder Ferry

Road

Williams

Davis Sawmill Road

Polktown

Road

B G Point Road

Tanner-

Road

Frank Snell Ro

ad

Martin

St

Lo

uis

e S

t

Mobile High

way

Ch

ico

t R

oad

2 nd

St

Orchard Road

Kre

ole

St

Coda Road

Presleys OutingRoad

Pol

lock

Fer

ryR

oad

Fo

rts

Lak

e R

oad

Fran

klin C

reek Ro

ad614 613

63

613

90

Adopted March 6, 2006Updated April 23, 2009

Eastern Jackso

Documents

East Jackson County Neighborhood Plan