There is a song in the Pascagoula air. From the Singing River to the Sunday morning pews to the seats at the town bars, a special harmony wafts through this spiritual, hardworking city. Her folks know both the meaning of hard work and the joy of wholesome fun, welding a ship’s steel by day and playing the steel drums by night. Home to approximately 22,000 residents, Pascagoula is enjoying an awakening of economic and community development.

The long-known Flagship City is the seat of Jackson County, located farthest east on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Pascagoula progress is humming, thanks in great part to the Pascagoula Redevelopment Authority (PRA), the urban renewal agency established by the City of Pascagoula in 2011. The board serves to promote and encourage revitalization in the Flagship District by offering incentives for investors to develop downtown properties. The PRA’s multi-phased approach to revitalization began with funding from a portion of Mississippi’s BP settlement money, appropriated by the state legislature. The revitalization efforts have turned more than $9 million in public funding into more than $56 million in private investment

The beauty of Pascagoula lies not only in her grand live oaks, laden with storied Spanish moss, and the broad brown pelicans’ wings as they dive for dinner, but also in her global corporate citizens with their stable payrolls and ever-expanding community outreach. Ingalls Shipbuilding, Mississippi’s largest employer, and Chevron’s largest refinery bookend the city, joined by Halter Marine, Rolls Royce, and a healthy host of contractors and suppliers. The award-winning Singing River Health System recently acquired Garden Park Medical Center and formed a strategic partnership agreement with Ochsner Health, expanding access to critical services and advanced technology. 

Full of charm and character… and characters, there is more to see as this once-sleepy town along the Mississippi Sound comes to life. Whether rod in hand, toes in sand, or lounging on land, Pascagoula is the place to kick back and enjoy.