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In the October issue of Lighthouse Digest we asked for information on the Baldwin Wood Lighthouse in Biloxi Mississippi.
We thought it might have been named or built in honor of A. Baldwin Wood who was the inventor who spearheaded the reclamation from swamp and developed the land. Some of his pumps have been in almost continuous use in New Orleans for over 80 years without need of repairs.
Until now, no one has come up with an answer, not even the local historical societies. However, Brenda Finnegan of Ocean Springs, Mississippi wrote to tell of about Pass Christian author, Dan Ellis, who in his book Lighthouses and the Islands of the Gulf gives a different story. He says the Howard Wood or Baldwin Wood light tower was privately built on East Beach in Biloxi to “shine on Wood’s famed racing yacht, the Nydia.” Wood bought the family estate from the Howard family, noted Biloxi philanthropists. In 1969, Hurricane Camille destroyed the 1875 structure.
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