Pascagoula /pəskæɡulə/ pə-ska-goo-lə is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. It is the principal city of the Pascagoula Metropolitan Statistical Area, as a part of the Gulfport–Biloxi–Pascagoula Combined Statistical Area. The population was 22,392 at the 2010 census, down from 26,200 at the 2000 census. As of 2018 the estimated population was 21,685. It is the county seat of Jackson County.

The city is served by three airports: Mobile Regional Airport, 34 miles (55 km) to the northeast in Alabama; Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Pascagoula; and the Trent Lott International Airport, 9 miles (14 km) to the north in Jackson County.

The United States post office in Pascagoula contains a mural, Legend of the Singing River, painted in 1939 by Lorin Thompson. Murals were produced from 1934 to 1943 in the United States through the Section of Painting and Sculpture, later called the Section of Fine Arts, of the Treasury Department. The mural was restored in the 1960s as the building became the Pascagoula Public Library. The building was damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the mural was placed in storage. In 2010, it was re-installed at the new Pascagoula post office on Jackson Avenue.

Pascagoula, is home of the Old Spanish Fort which is the oldest building in the Mississippi Valley. It was built sometime in the 1750s.

(source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascagoula,_Mississippi)

SIGHTS AND ACTIVITIES

LE POINTE KREBS HOUSE

The oldest standing building in all of Mississippi, the Le Pointe Krebs House was originally constructed in the 1770s. Now restored, the building is in the middle of a historic park area.

PETIT BOIS ISLAND

Petit Bois Island is a scenic and picturesque wilderness island located off the coast of Mississippi. Visitors commonly enjoy camping, hiking, swimming, and sightseeing when they are on their trip to the island.

ROBIN ADAMS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

The Robin Adams Performing Arts Center is a dance studio and academy that strives to teach its students the art of dance. Many different dance varieties are offered, including ballet, jazz, hip-hop, and tap.

EDUCATION

BEST SCHOOLS IN PASCAGOULA

• BEACH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
• ARLINGTON HEIGHTS ELEM SCHOOL
• LAKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
• EASTLAWN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
• CENTRAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
• CHEROKEE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
• JACKSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
• PASCAGOULA HIGH SCHOOL
• WILLIAM M COLMER MIDDLE SCHOOL
• TRENT LOTT ACADEMY

NEIGHBORHOOD

Pascagoula is a medium-sized coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of Mississippi. With a population of 21,685 people and seven constituent neighborhoods, Pascagoula is the 18th largest community in Mississippi.

Unlike some cities, Pascagoula isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Pascagoula are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Pascagoula is a city of sales and office workers, service providers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Pascagoula who work in office and administrative support (12.24%), sales jobs (9.96%), and food service (6.73%).

One of the nice things about Pascagoula is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.

One of the benefits of Pascagoula is that there is very little traffic. The average commute to work is 18.95 minutes, which is substantially less than the national average. Not only does this mean that the drive to work is less aggravating, but noise and pollution levels are lower as a result.

Pascagoula also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 12.59% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Pascagoula include African, Irish, English, German, and French.

The most common language spoken in Pascagoula is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Polish.

POPULAR REAL ESTATE

• City Center
• Industrial Rd / Old Mobile Hwy
• Ingalls Ave / Louise St
• Denny Ave / 14th St
• Denny Ave / Pascagoula St
• Washington Ave / Pascagoula St
• Washington Ave / Belair St

The percentage of adults in Pascagoula with college degrees is slightly lower than the national average of 21.84% for all communities. 16.71% of adults in Pascagoula have a bachelor’s degree or advanced degree.

The per capita income in Pascagoula in 2010 was $23,205, which is wealthy relative to Mississippi, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $92,820 for a family of four.

HISTORY

EARLY HISTORY

The name Pascagoula, which means “bread eater”, is taken from a group of Native Americans found in villages along the Pascagoula River some distance above its mouth. Hernando de Soto seems to have made the first contact with them in the 1540s, though little is known of that encounter.

Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville, founder of the colony of Louisiana, left a more detailed account from an expedition of this region in 1700. The first detailed account comes from Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, younger brother of Iberville, whom the Pascagoula visited at Fort Maurepas in present-day Ocean Springs, shortly after it was settled and while the older brother was away in France.

There are few details that are certain about these people, except that their language seemed not to have shared an etymological root with the larger native groups to the north, the Choctaw particularly. Instead, their language seems more akin to that of the Biloxi, who have been linked in this way to the Sioux, Crow, and Ho-Chunk.

The territory of the Biloxi people seems to have ranged from the areas of what are now called Biloxi Bay to Bayou La Batre (Alabama) and 25 miles (40 km) up the Pascagoula River, and the Pascagoula people’s territory seems to have ranged between some distance north of there to the confluence of the Leaf and Chickasawhay rivers.

The first European settlers of Pascagoula were Jean Baptiste Baudreau Dit Graveline, Joseph Simon De La Pointe and his aunt, Madame Chaumont.

MODERN HISTORY

The region changed hands over the next century, being occupied variously by the English, French, and Spanish until well after the American Revolutionary War. It did not come into the permanent possession of the United States until 1812 when it was added to the Mississippi Territory.

At one point, for 74 days in 1810, Pascagoula was a part of what was known as the Republic of West Florida. Pascagoula was incorporated as a village in 1892 and obtained city status in 1901. Today’s downtown Pascagoula used to be the town of Scranton, Mississippi (incorporated in 1870) until the two towns merged in 1912.

In October 1973, an alleged unidentified flying object sighting and alien abduction is said to have occurred when co-workers Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker claimed they were abducted by aliens while fishing near Pascagoula. The incident, Pascagoula Abduction, earned substantial mass media attention.

In June 2019, Pascagoula placed an historical marker near the alleged abduction site.