BAY SAINT LOUIS

city, seat (1860) of Hancock county, south-central Mississippi, U.S. It lies along the Mississippi Sound at the entrance to St. Louis Bay, 58 miles (93 km) northeast of New Orleans. The site was part of a 1789 Spanish land grant to Thomas Shields. By 1812 the village had become a resort for wealthy planters and, later, for tourists who arrived after the New Orleans, Mobile and Chattanooga Railroad was completed in 1869. Unofficially incorporated as Shieldsborough in 1858, it was officially incorporated as Bay St. Louis in 1882. The bay (named in 1699 for Louis IX of France) was the scene (1814) of the naval engagement against the British known as the Battle of Pass Christian. The city's manufactures include electrical appliances, steel and aluminum products, plastics, and leather goods. The Mississippi Test Facility of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is 17 miles (27 km) west. Pop. (1990) 8,063.