Discovering Cat Island

Photographs and History

John Cuevas

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781496816078
• eBook ISBN:
  9781496816108
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Photography

Cat Island, just off the Mississippi Gulf Coast shoreline, has been home to some of the most dramatic events and remarkable stories in the nation's history. While some of these stories are fact, others are colorful fables passed down through the ages with such conviction they have become true in the hearts and minds of many. Between fact and fiction is the undeniable reality: Cat Island is one of the most historically significant landmarks on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.Featuring over 160 black-and-white photographs by Jason Taylor and a foreword by Mississippi's Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, John Cuevas's Discovering Cat Island guides readers through Cat Island with stories and histories of twenty-nine sites--both real and imagined--of the legendary barrier island. Originally owned by the Cuevas family as part of a Spanish land grant to Juan de Cuevas in 1781, Cat Island boasts a colorful history that includes events related to the notorious pirate Jean Lafitte and the outlaw James Copeland, both of whom were thought to have buried their stolen treasure somewhere on the island; the Battle of New Orleans; and the War of 1812. The island served as one of the staging areas for the Seminole forced to abandon their homes and take part in the Trail of Tears. In the twentieth century, the island was a convenient transfer point for gangsters and local bootleggers shipping booze during Prohibition before becoming a US military training camp site during World War II. In 1988, Cat Island became the location of the first oil drilling ever in the Mississippi Sound and in 2010 was one of the islands devastated by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Table of contents

• Cover
• DISCOVERING CAT ISLAND
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• The Cat Island Story
• Site Map
• 1717 / Site 1 The French Fort on Cat Island
• 1746 / Site 2 From Andalusia to the Piney Woods
• 1757 / Site 3 Jean Baptiste Baudreau II and the Mutiny of Captain Duroux
• 1805 / Site 4 Jean Lafitte and His Buried Treasure
• 1812 / Site 5 The Old Cuevas Homestead
• 1814 / Site 6 The British Navy Attacks Cat Island
• 1820 / Site 7 Juan de Cuevas Captures the Pirates
• 1834 / Site 8 The Lighthouses of Cat Island
• 1834 / Site 9 The Seminoles and the Trail of Tears
• 1844 / Site 10 The Last Great Party
• 1847 / Site 11 The Great Sand Hill
• 1849 / Site 12 The Death of Don Juan
• 1850 / Site 13 James Copeland the Land Pirate
• 1890 / Site 14 Senator Money and the Belgian Hares
• 1896 / Site 15 Yellow Fever Quarantine Station
• 1907 / Site 16 Major Harrod’s Bird Sanctuary
• 1911 / Site 17 Turpentine and Heart Pine Lumber
• 1919 / Site 18 Al Capone and the Rumrunners
• 1925 / Site 19 Treasure Island
• 1929 / Site 20 The Goose Point Tarpon Club
• 1933 / Site 21 The Great Raccoon Experiment
• 1942 / Site 22 The Secret Dogs of World War II
• 1966 / Site 23 The Invasion of the Flying Saucers
• 1971 / Site 24 The Gulf Islands National Seashore
• 1983 / Site 25 The United States Military Attacks Cat Island
• 1983 / Site 26 Satellite Launch Site
• 1985 / Site 27 Redfish Farming Research Institute
• 1988 / Site 28 Drilling for Oil on Cat Island
• 2010 / Site 29 The BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index