GULFPORT

city, coseat (with nearby Biloxi) of Harrison county, southeastern Mississippi, U.S. Gulfport is a port of entry on the Mississippi Sound and the Gulf of Mexico. It was founded in 1887 by Captain William H. Hardy as the site for the terminus of his Gulf and Ship Island Railroad. In 1902 Captain Joseph T. Jones assumed control of the line, and he and his family helped develop the city and harbour. In the 1920s Gulfport saw a short-lived boom as a seaside resort after the Gulf line was bought by the Illinois Central Railroad. Following World War II, enhanced by one of the world's longest man-made sand beaches (extending eastward for 28 miles from Pass Christian through Gulfport to Biloxi and called the Silver Strip), its resort-motel business grew rapidly. The surrounding coastal bayous and rivers abound with fish, and the city's Mississippi Deep-Sea Fishing Rodeo is an annual summer event. Gulfport's deepwater harbour has one of the world's largest and most modern banana terminals. Seafood, naval stores, lumber, tung oil, and textiles are among the city's commercial products. The Jefferson Davis Campus of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College (1965) is in Gulfport. West Ship Island and other areas of the Gulf Islands National Seashore lie off the coast. In 1969 Hurricane Camille devastated Gulfport's beachfront and port. Inc. town, 1898; city, 1904. Pop. (1990) city, 40,775; Biloxi-Gulfport-Pascagoula MSA, 312,368; (1994 est.) city, 43,023; Biloxi-Gulfport-Pascagoula MSA, 337,970.