She introduced herself as “Ching,” an artist she said, which I wasn’t buying, except, of course, to the extent that everyone you meet in a bar in a coastal town is an artist or a musician. We sat down at a table and within minutes a small lady with long grey hair said, “You’re not from here, are you?”
The first time we visited Kwitzky’s Dugout, we went because I had never seen a bar with a “No Smoking” sign out front, and I could tell the owner was a big baseball fan, besides (ergo, the name). And in Ocean Springs, everyplace is Cheers. So a little asking around is likely to result in landing at a spot on almost any night where someone is holding forth. But Ocean Springs weekends never start later than Thursdays, and often on Wednesdays. Lots of towns boast live music a few nights a week. Ready for adventure Photo provided by Wonderlust And the small inner harbor is idyllic, featuring fishing, leisure and shrimp boats that look for all the world as though they were miniatures placed there by hand, just for purposes of arranging the perfect post card setting. Fact is, there appears to be no other town bearing the name “Ocean Springs” in the entire country.įront Beach is small, and protected, so there’s no surf, and a visit to the waterfront feels more like strolling through a park than a day at the beach. Ocean Springs or its environs has been named one of the state’s most redneck cities and one of the snobbiest by the same publication in back to back years. Not many places in the world have mutually exclusive personalities.īut not many places in the world are Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Walter’s boat, which hangs in the Walter Anderson Museum Photo provided by Wonderlust Walter’s records include musings of the many times he rowed the fifteen miles from his family’s art compound at Shearwater Pottery across the Mississippi Sound out to Horn Island, now a part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. If Ernest Hemingway had not written about the outdoor wonders of the world – human, fish, fauna – from a Key West cottage, he might have been in Ocean Springs.Īnd if Walter Anderson hadn’t been a painter, watercoloring the world as he saw it from Ocean Springs, he might have written about it instead.Īnd indeed he did write, though he thought only for himself, keeping logs of his adventures and fantasies. This popular spot has been family owned and operated since 1960.“Nature does not like to be anticipated… but loves to surprise in fact seems to justify itself to man in that way, restoring his youth to him each time - the true fountain of youth.” The Art House, 921 Cash Alley, is a co-op art gallery featuring outdoor sculpture, handmade jewelry and very cool “floor murals,” rugs painted directly on the gallery's wooden plank floors it's worth stopping here just to see them.Īnd if all that window shopping works up an appetite, stop at the Tato-nut Donut Shop, 1114 Government St., and refuel with a homemade doughnut or pastry and a specialty coffee concoction. Many shops and galleries in the historic downtown area feature the works of Ocean Springs artists, artisans and crafters. Eleven of the pottery's 15 buildings were destroyed or damaged beyond repair by Hurricane Katrina, but a smaller-scale production facility reopened at the original location phone (228) 875-7320. ShoppingShearwater Pottery, 102 Shearwater Dr., was established here in 1928 by Peter Anderson and continues as a family enterprise. Self-guiding ToursBrochures and walking maps at the chamber of commerce provide information about local shopping and dining and the Live Oaks Bicycle Route.
Visitor Centers Ocean Springs Chamber of Commerce Main Street Tourism Bureau 1000 Washington Ave. The visitor center is open daily 8:30-4:30. Colmer Visitor Center, Davis Bayou offers a boat launch, fishing pier, nature trail, campground and weekend ranger programs. The Davis Bayou Area of Gulf Islands National Seashore, just east of town off US 90, offers a variety of recreational activities. John's Episcopal Church at Porter and Rayburn avenues was designed by American architect Louis Sullivan it sustained relatively minor damage from Hurricane Katrina. The town's historic churches are worth a look. The community was christened Ocean Springs in 1854 by a physician who established a sanitarium in town he took advantage of the same purported health-giving spring waters that the Native Americans used for medicinal purposes. About Ocean SpringsThe first permanent European settlement in the Mississippi Valley was established in the Ocean Springs area in 1699.
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