Abandoned The label
Why Gainesville is called a ghost town
Gainesville is on Wikipedia's list of ghost towns in Mississippi, and its Wikipedia article calls it a ghost town and one of the more dramatic examples of post-Civil War and industrial-era change in Mississippi. Ghost town directories carry it, and a 2022 TheTravel road-trip list ranks it among Mississippi's ghost towns. The label is fair: a busy county seat and lumber port faded to a village of a hundred people. But the end came from a federal buyout, and the site now lies inside a rocket engine test center that the public cannot enter.
History
Gainesville then
Settlers were shipping cotton down the Pearl River to New Orleans from this bluff by about 1790, and the landing was known as Cottonport and later English Bluff. In 1810 Dr. Ambrose Gaines received a Spanish grant of about 500 arpents here, gave small pieces to the squatters already living on it, and sold the rest as town lots under his own name. Gainesville grew into a river port and lumber town. Wikipedia says the Pearl River Lumber Company was founded here in 1832.
Gainesville was the seat of Hancock County in the 1840s and early 1850s. The county historical society dates the move to 1837; Russell Guerin cites an 1846 bill to move the courthouse from Shieldsboro because Gainesville people had to travel 25 to 30 miles on a bad road. Guerin and Wikipedia both end it with the courthouse fire, which Guerin dates to 1853 and says destroyed the records. Wikipedia dates its incorporation to 1843.
The railroad passed about ten miles away and the trade went with it. Gainesville had 227 people, two churches and several stores in 1900, the post office closed in 1918, and boat service to the town ended in 1920. When the Army Corps of Engineers began buying land for NASA's test site in 1962, about 100 people still lived here. Gainesville was one of five communities, with Logtown, Napoleon, Santa Rosa and Westonia, that 660 families left in 1962 and 1963. NASA used some of the old buildings at first, including the Rouchon House, where it held its first flag raising. 483 graves were moved from the town's two cemeteries.
c. 1790. Earliest recorded settlement, a cotton port called Cottonport.
1810. Spanish land grant of about 500 arpents to Dr. Ambrose Gaines, who lays out the town.
1837 or 1846. Gainesville becomes the Hancock County seat; sources differ on the year.
1840s. Post office (1840 by Guerin, 1844 by Wikipedia); incorporation in 1843 (Wikipedia).
1853. The courthouse and the county records burn; the seat leaves Gainesville.
1900. 227 people, two churches and several stores.
1918. The post office closes.
1920. Boat service to Gainesville ends.
1961–1962. NASA chooses the site; land buying begins in 1962 with about 100 people left.
1963. By the fall the last residents of the five communities have been moved out.
2026. The site is inside Stennis Space Center, closed except to escorted official visitors and announced public events.
Today
What is there now
The townsite is on a low bluff above the Pearl River at the western edge of Stennis Space Center, which tests rocket engines. NASA's Stennis FAQ, updated April 20, 2026, says regular bus tours from the INFINITY Science Center are no longer available. Official visitors must show photo ID for a badge and be escorted by a badged Stennis employee, and NASA plans occasional public events with windshield tours, announced in local media and on its website. We found no report that those tours stop at Gainesville. Wikipedia says almost none of the town's buildings remain. One undated ghost town listing mentions roads and concrete foundations and says some of the area is still accessible, without saying where; NASA's rules above are the newest word on access.
The maps show the change. The 1914 Nicholson sheet spells it Gainsville and draws roads and buildings on the bluff at a bend of the Pearl, the state line running down the river. The 1959 Haaswood sheet still shows a small street grid and houses along the road. On the 1993 sheet the name survives beside the Space Center boundary, which follows the river, with a boat ramp, two cemeteries and a survey mark named Gaines. Current USGS aerial imagery shows woods, a few NASA roads and buildings, and the river.
The nearest place a visitor can go is the INFINITY Science Center at I-10 Exit 2, the Stennis visitor center, open Wednesday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. by its own site. Its Possum Walk Trail runs to the Logtown Cemetery near the Pearl River, at a sister town NASA also bought out; see our Logtown guide.
Historic maps
Gainesville on USGS maps, 1914–1993
Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the map point. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.
Map
Where Gainesville is
Photos
Gainesville in photos
Questions
Common questions
Is Gainesville, Mississippi a ghost town?
It is a vanished town. It shrank from a county seat to about 100 people, and NASA bought out the rest in 1962 for Stennis Space Center. Wikipedia says almost none of its buildings remain.
Can you visit Gainesville?
No. The site is inside Stennis Space Center. NASA says regular public tours have ended and only badged, escorted official visitors go in, apart from occasional announced public events (NASA FAQ, updated April 20, 2026). The INFINITY Science Center at I-10 Exit 2 is open to the public.
Where was Gainesville?
On a bluff above the Pearl River in western Hancock County, at the Louisiana line, at what is now the western edge of Stennis Space Center.
Nearby
Ghost towns and sites near Gainesville
Straight-line distance to other mapped sites in our Mississippi index.
- Napoleon1.9 mi SE · Hancock
- Logtown4.8 mi S · Hancock
- Brewton61.6 mi E · Jackson
- Holmesville71.0 mi NW · Pike
- Riverside71.7 mi N · Forrest
- Mount Carmel89.9 mi N · Jefferson Davis
- Woolworth96.2 mi NW · Lincoln
- Westville106.2 mi N · Simpson
Sources
Sources and credits
- Wikipedia, "Gainesville, Mississippi", retrieved October 2026: coordinates, Cottonport and English Bluff, the 1810 grant, the Pearl River Lumber Company in 1832, the 1843 incorporation, the post office 1844–1918, the Gainesville Volunteers, 227 people in 1900, the railroad ten miles off, NASA in 1961–62, the Rouchon House and first flag raising, the 483 reburied graves, almost no buildings left.
- Hancock County Historical Society, "Gainesville", January 11, 2012: Ambrose Gaines, the 500-arpent Spanish grant, the lots, the 1837 county seat, Wailes's 1852 description of the courthouse, the end of boat service in 1920.
- Russell B. Guerin, "A Slow Drift down Pearl River", Hancock County Historical Society, January 20, 2010: the bluff at the west edge of Stennis, the 1840 post office, the 1846 courthouse bill, the 1853 fire, the Gainesville Advocate, Wailes's steam sawmill.
- NASA, "Stennis Selection Ushers South Mississippi into the Space Age", June 6, 2013: founded 1810, one-time county seat, about 100 residents in 1962, the five communities and 660 families.
- NASA, Stennis FAQs, updated April 20, 2026: no regular bus tours, badged and escorted official visitors only, occasional public events with windshield tours.
- INFINITY Science Center, "Outdoor Offerings", read October 2026: museum hours, the Possum Walk Trail to the Logtown Cemetery.
- A. R. Calles, TheTravel, September 27, 2022: Gainesville as a Mississippi ghost town; Stennis closed to the public.
- ghosttowns.com, "Gainesville": the undated note of roads and concrete foundations, and that some of the area is accessible.
- Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (1914 Nicholson, 1959 and 1993 Haaswood). Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query.
Photo and map credits
- Floating saloons on the Pearl River near old Gainesville, 1907: Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
- Topo map, area base map and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
- Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Nicholson 1914, 1:62,500; Haaswood 1959, 1:24,000; Haaswood 1993, 1:24,000.