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Modern day Ocean Springs in the form of "Old Biloxi" is the oldest -- settled by the French in 1699 (the colony later moved to the site of present-day Biloxi). Natchez on the Mississippi is the second oldest -- most history books date its founding as 1716, when the French built Fort Rosalie and stationed a garrison there. The fact is the Fort was necessary because French colonists had already settled there -- a trading post had been established with the Natchez Indians several years earlier -- it is well-established that there was a permanent party of French settlers there since at least 1714, possibly even earlier. Another myth of Natchez deals with its status as either "the oldest town on the Mississippi" or the "oldest town in Mississippi" or several other variations. The fact is that it is the "oldest continuously occupied town on the Mississippi" by virtue of the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians -- a state historic park within the present day City Limits. Although European settlement is confined to the past three hundred years, archeological evidence puts the Natchez on-site for at least five hundred years prior to that, thus establishing the claim of "oldest continuously occupied town on the Mississippi."

--BTH

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16y ago

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