Page 158 - South Mississippi Living - February, 2017

JUNE JUANICO OF BILOXI was engaged to Elvis Presley and they spent lots of time at Gulf Hill Dude Ranch. Here they are relaxing in The Pink Pony in 1956.
LIVINGHISTORY heritage&heart
RICH HISTORY OF GULF HILLS
on display in Ocean Springs
story by Susan Ruddiman
photo credit: June Juanico
he Ocean Springs Museum of History has opened an exhibit celebrating a place that once attracted mobsters, movie stars, sportsmen and Elvis himself. “Heritage & Heart: A History of Gulf Hills,” is on display for the next 18 months at the museum, which is located on the second floor of the Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Center in Ocean Springs.
“We found this place to be fascinating. We think most people have a general idea about the history, but not everything,” said Dennis Walker, museum registrar.
The Branigar Brothers Co. of Chicago, Ill., built this $15 million development on Old Fort Bayou that boasted such amenities as 20 miles of waterfront; estate and villa lots; and
day explained. “He said ‘lady, you must not be good in geography.’ He said you can take a ruler and see it’s
a straight line from Chicago to Ocean Springs with rail service. Then you can go the East Coast or the West Coast from Ocean Springs,” Brown said.
The mobsters would bring in rail car loads of liquor from Canada, and
through the lobby and out the back. Cars were kept gassed up, and speed boats were ready to go in the bayou,” said Pat Pinson, Ph.D., museum curator. “Plus there was an escape tunnel in the hotel. They had it all figured out.”
Movie stars frequented the resort as well as moneyed families. Guests
HOTEL
boating, saltwater bathing
and horseback riding. The
18-hole golf course was
designed by Jack Darray.
The construction of the
resort, completed in 1927,
was funded by gangster Al Capone.
Donna Brown, general manager
for Gulf Hills Hotel and Conference Center, frequently gives tours at the resort, allowing guests to relive its vivid past. Brown said she had no
idea why Ocean Springs was selected by the 1920s era mobsters until a man listening to her lecture at the hotel one
could arrive by train, on the schooner “Fairy Queen” or their own private mode of travel such as a seaplane.
By the time the Great Depression and World War II had passed, Gulf Hills was a
fading beauty until the resort was acquired by the Waters family. Dick and Gladys Waters with their teenage son, Dickie, had vacationed in Texas and Mexico where they were inspired by the dude ranches. They brought the concept to south Mississippi, and the Gulf Hills Dude Ranch was born.
“They offered hayrides, singalongs,
158 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • February 2017
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No matter what happens you can’t take away from what Gulf Hills has been to this Coast and to Ocean Springs,
transport it south to the Coast. “What most people don’t realize is
the mob continued to meet at Gulf Hills for vacations until the early 1970s,” Walker said. “The FBI out of New Orleans used to come over to keep tabs on them.”
“The original Gulf Hills Hotel was built so you could see the front door,