Ocean Springs

The first commander of the 1699 fort here was Jean de Sauvole, a young naval ensign from Guyenne. Iberville named him commandant in May 1699, then left for France, and Sauvole finished building Fort Maurepas. He kept good relations with the Biloxi, Pascagoula and Mobile chiefs, who supplied the French with food they badly needed. He tried to ban rum and whiskey, failed, and clashed with the Jesuit chaplain. He died of fever on August 22, 1701, and was buried in the graveyard outside the fort.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Walter Anderson Museum of Art — 0.4 mi
  A museum in downtown Ocean Springs built around the artist who rowed to Horn Island to paint, with his 1952 murals of Iberville's 1699 landing and the Seven Climates of the town.
• Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum — 1.9 mi
  A Point Cadet museum on Biloxi's oyster, shrimp and schooner past, from the packing houses and the shrimpers' unions to the Vietnamese families who rebuilt the industry.
• Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art — 2.7 mi
  Frank Gehry's pavilions on the Biloxi waterfront, built around the pottery of George Ohr, the self-styled Mad Potter, and the rebuilt Pleasant Reed House.
• Biloxi Lighthouse — 4.3 mi
  A cast-iron tower lit in 1848 on the Biloxi beachfront, kept by women for most of its first century and still in service after Camille and Katrina.

More markers nearby

• Carter-Calloway House — 0.7 mi
• Mary C. O'Keefe Cultural Center — 0.8 mi
• Marble Springs — 0.8 mi
• Charnley-Norwood House (Bon Silene) — 1.5 mi