My Ocean Springs: 2007 in Pictures

My daughter, Hillary Sturgeon, stands on the site of Fort Maurepas imagining what it was like for the French explorers that landed here in 1699. The French, under the command of Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville, built Fort Maurepas to discourage Spanish and English presence in the area LaSalle had claimed for France. Although the fort was abandoned in 1702 and the French eventually concentrated their efforts in New Orleans, Fort Maurepas remains an important historical site in the history of the Gulf Coast. A marker was placed at the site in 1949. A replica of the fort was constructed on-site in 1982. In 1993, the Fort Maurepas Society began hosting annual re-enactments of the landing of d’Iberville until Hurricane Katrina destroyed the structure in August of 2005. Plans are underway to rebuild the replica bigger and better to preserve the important history the fort represents.

Ocean Springs is truly the City of Discovery. If you visit, you’ll discover why.