Old West Florida

The republic began with a raid. On September 23, 1810, rebels led by Philemon Thomas stormed Fort San Carlos at Baton Rouge, killed two Spanish soldiers and captured the governor. Fulwar Skipwith, a cotton planter and former diplomat, was elected governor that November, but President Madison had already proclaimed in October that the United States would take possession, and troops entered Baton Rouge on December 10. The rebels' eastern boundary was the Pearl River. Land beyond it, including this stretch of highway, went to Mississippi Territory in May 1812.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Black Creek Wild and Scenic River — 6.1 mi
  A 21-mile black-water creek through De Soto National Forest, a national wild and scenic river since 1986, with white sandbars, bluffs and primitive camping.
• Mississippi Armed Forces Museum — 14 mi
  The state military museum inside Camp Shelby, where 750,000 soldiers trained for the Second World War, among them the Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
• Mount Zion Baptist Church — 22 mi
  Hattiesburg's "Civil Rights Church," a Freedom School site in 1964 where Pete Seeger taught music and Martin Luther King Jr. spoke weeks before his death.
• Hub City Historic District — 23 mi
  Hattiesburg's twelve-block downtown, a railroad town laid out in 1880s pine country, with the Saenger Theater, the courthouse and the 1910 depot.

More markers nearby

• Forrest County Agricultural High School — 4.9 mi
• Stone County — 9.5 mi
• The Harvey Battle — 10 mi
• Gulf & Ship Island Railroad — 11 mi