The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-11-22

largely the property of Capt. J. T. Jones, wealthy manufacturer, oil operator and capitalist living in Buffalo, N. r., has built pier from the shore at Gulf port more than one mile out into Mis- sissippi Sound and starting with twenty four feet of water alongside the wharf mas oredEed a permanent channel BIO feet wide and about twenty-two feet deep for seven miles out into Ship Island Harbor and the deep waters of the Gulf. An anchorage basin half a mile long and a quarter mile wide with piers and slips at the head is under construction and the whole improvement will be fully completed within the next few months. AS 1t Is, ocean going Vesesls now tie up at the wharf. Just how much this en- terprise Is going to mean to the South 1t Is difficult for even the enthusiast to foretell. That Gulfport contains remark able possibilities. however, is clearly in- dicated in the conditions that exist. The worlds fine harbors are not over-plen- tiful and they are not made to order in day or year. nor without the expen- diture of vast treasure. Even if the pos abilities of another Gulfport existed on Mississippi Sound it is inconceivable that another Captain Jones will be found able and willing to pour out money by the millions in such purely pioneering en- terprise."
 Touching the immediate territory upon which Gulfport will draw, the corre- spondent says:
 The main line of the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad runs from Gulfport to Jackson. the capital of Mississippi. 16O Maxie to Columbia and from Saratoga to Laurel making a total mileage of 25l miles. The entire distance Is through the long-leaf pine belt, unsurpassed any where, the timber cutting an average of 100 feet to the acre. Three-fourths of the timber of this area is still standing By buying up large tracts of land at strategic points and throwing out log nD al pla asement has secured control of an area which 1t is estimated will require from twenty to thirty years to cut over, al- though the capacity of the ninetyfour a day, and one of the mills alone clears over eighty acres every operating day.
 systematic plans for the settlement of the territory after the timber Is cut are being made, and in the influx of settlers which the South Is now seeing. Mississip- pi will without doubt soon cease to be passed by and it may be regarded by many as an unmixed blessing that prtm- opportunities for building from the feun- dations so generally exist. Efforts are being made as well to develop the re- sources of the country in an industrial magnolia are found along tho line to keep numerous factories employed, to say nothing of the uses to which the finest of yellow pine might be put. Then there cellent brick clay, vast quantities of iron deposits now used by the road for con creting. and an abundance of gravel, while out of the sand on the shore at Gulfport a particularly excellent sand stone brick can be made. A shipbuild- ing industry is among the ambitions Of Gulfport, its proximity to the finest ship timber and to the iron and steel of Ala bama furnishing the opportunity. While the great stimulus of the isthmian canal will create occasion for industries of this sort on the Southern coast, already ship building is being engaged in in small way by the Gulf and Ship Island peo- pie and the enterprise is expected to have a great expansion. Needs of Gulfport in a building way are indicated in the fact that 300 hands are working there whose families live elsewhere. and are bunk ing in ehacks or in tents.