What?’s in a name?
Are we Fontainebleau, Belle Fontaine, Graveline, St. Andrews, or the diaspora of Ocean Springs? I don?’t recall what label the US 10 exit signs use. The US 90 signs include Fontainebleau, St. Andrews, and maybe Pinehurst. The historical county report at
http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/osprings/standrews/history.html
traces the name Fontainebleau to the postmistress of the local post office and the name Belle Fontaine to the 1941 recollection of a local historian. However, a 1768 map from the archives of the Smithsonian identifies our area and an adjacent bay as Graveline. Looking around, there is no other significant geographic feature for our area. On topographic map there is a stream that runs between the Ocean Springs Airport area to the marsh west and south of St. Andrews. This may be the source the Belle Fontaine name, but it really exists now only as small patches of wet lands no longer deserving to identify our area.
Historically, that leaves the name Graveline for our area. But is it for us? Is it ?“Grave line?” or French pronounced as ?“Gravaleen??” What does Graveline connote anyway? Since the early maps of this area seem to be French, it probable that the name comes from France and it is the name of a city or village, like New Orleans is named after Orleans in France. Search of the Web found the official portal for the village of Graveline ( http://www.ville-gravelines.fr/Ville-Gravelines-2003%20Dossier/Ville-Gravelines-2003/index.html). Their official history is posted as a reply to this discussion. A web camera of the Graveline France beach looks something like our beach area.
http://www.ville-gravelines.fr/Ville-Gravelines-2003%20Dossier/Ville-Gravelines-2003/index.html
A Google search of the Web finds 19,900 links to the word Graveline, most of them on the first pages of the search seem to be related to a family surname. The Miss. DMR has a description of our local Graveline bay/bayou as follows:
?“The wetland boundary of this 2,339-acre preserve is Graveline Bay and Bayou. One exception is the exclusion of one major tributary. Graveline Bay and Bayou represents one of few relatively undisturbed estuarine bays and small tidal creeks in Mississippi. The area supports salt marsh, brackish marsh, and several oyster beds. The bay, marsh, adjoining upland forest, and undeveloped beach front near the mouth of Graveline Bayou are an important landing area for neotropical migrant birds. This coastal bay/marsh estuarine system receives only local freshwater runoff and consists largely of mid-level needle rush (Juncus roemerianus) dominated marsh along its entire length. Smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) occurs largely as narrow (1-3 m) bands along the creeks and bayous.?”
It?’s a description of an environmentally healthy place. Therefore, let?’s ask the supervisors to declare the official name for our area to be Graveline, end this confusion, and take this step forward in developing our area.
By Al Pettigrew
Are we Fontainebleau, Belle Fontaine, Graveline, St. Andrews, or the diaspora of Ocean Springs? I don?’t recall what label the US 10 exit signs use. The US 90 signs include Fontainebleau, St. Andrews, and maybe Pinehurst. The historical county report at
http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/osprings/standrews/history.html
traces the name Fontainebleau to the postmistress of the local post office and the name Belle Fontaine to the 1941 recollection of a local historian. However, a 1768 map from the archives of the Smithsonian identifies our area and an adjacent bay as Graveline. Looking around, there is no other significant geographic feature for our area. On topographic map there is a stream that runs between the Ocean Springs Airport area to the marsh west and south of St. Andrews. This may be the source the Belle Fontaine name, but it really exists now only as small patches of wet lands no longer deserving to identify our area.
Historically, that leaves the name Graveline for our area. But is it for us? Is it ?“Grave line?” or French pronounced as ?“Gravaleen??” What does Graveline connote anyway? Since the early maps of this area seem to be French, it probable that the name comes from France and it is the name of a city or village, like New Orleans is named after Orleans in France. Search of the Web found the official portal for the village of Graveline ( http://www.ville-gravelines.fr/Ville-Gravelines-2003%20Dossier/Ville-Gravelines-2003/index.html). Their official history is posted as a reply to this discussion. A web camera of the Graveline France beach looks something like our beach area.
http://www.ville-gravelines.fr/Ville-Gravelines-2003%20Dossier/Ville-Gravelines-2003/index.html
A Google search of the Web finds 19,900 links to the word Graveline, most of them on the first pages of the search seem to be related to a family surname. The Miss. DMR has a description of our local Graveline bay/bayou as follows:
?“The wetland boundary of this 2,339-acre preserve is Graveline Bay and Bayou. One exception is the exclusion of one major tributary. Graveline Bay and Bayou represents one of few relatively undisturbed estuarine bays and small tidal creeks in Mississippi. The area supports salt marsh, brackish marsh, and several oyster beds. The bay, marsh, adjoining upland forest, and undeveloped beach front near the mouth of Graveline Bayou are an important landing area for neotropical migrant birds. This coastal bay/marsh estuarine system receives only local freshwater runoff and consists largely of mid-level needle rush (Juncus roemerianus) dominated marsh along its entire length. Smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) occurs largely as narrow (1-3 m) bands along the creeks and bayous.?”
It?’s a description of an environmentally healthy place. Therefore, let?’s ask the supervisors to declare the official name for our area to be Graveline, end this confusion, and take this step forward in developing our area.
By Al Pettigrew