The 4th Annual Reunion for Alumni of Turkey Creek and North Gulfport High Schools is fast approaching. "This year's gathering will be our best reunion yet, and all y'all need to go on ahead and send in your checks," says Treasurer Flowers White. To register for the Reunion or to purchase an ad in the Souvenir Booklet, contact the Alumni Association at 228-493-2262 or 228-213-7981. Checks can be sent to: TC/NG High Schools Alumni Association, PO Box 8052, Gulfport MS 39506.
The Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) has proposed a 4 to 6 lane highway to connect I-10 to Governor Barbour's controversial Port of Gulfport expansion. This new road would be built "at grade" (on the ground) through 162 acres of critical Turkey Creek wetlands before rising through downtown Gulfport (where residents and business leaders would prefer it on the ground). Because 1 acre of wetlands can store roughly 1 million gallons of water, the current proposal will increase flooding and worsen future storm surge for several Gulfport and Long Beach communities that cannot afford to lose more wetlands.
Your input in the Turkey Creek-North Gulfport community planning process remains very important. The comprehensive revitalization of these areas is a long journey that will take more than zoning and construction. Please call TCCI at 863-0099 or the North Gulfport Community Land Trust at 868-0250 to learn more about the Plan and SmartCode. Also sign up for one of 4 community Task Forces: Housing; Economic Development; Environmental Stewardship; or Education, Recreation & Public Health. Learn more...
During the first 10 weeks of 2008, TCCI's community service projects continued to produce amazing results. Special thanks to Environmental Projects Coordinator Russell Freeman, TCCI veteran Mike Julian, the award-winning Conservation Corps team from our own "Camp Ed Joseph," and a stream of highly productive volunteers. In January, 45 Boston College students returned to spearhead another major community cleanup, while University of Texas law students helped finalize materials for collecting community plan data. In February and March, Conservation Corps youth who live at our camp helped to plant over 2,000 trees and diligently assisted the US Coast Guard in clearing tons of storm debris from Turkey Creek. Whew!
Deadly to mold, termites and other organisms that cause wood to rot - strong smelling creosote was used for many years as a preservative in the manufacturing of utility poles and railroad ties. The Gulf Coast Creosote Company operated such a treatment plant at the confluence of Turkey Creek and Bayou Bernard for most of the 20th century. In 1986, the year that Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned the highly carcinogenic compound, facilities like the one on historic Rippy Road were shut down. To this day, however, the plant's federally-mandated cleanup remains an endless tale of fuzzy information, strange coincidences and highly questionable characters.
After Hurricane Katrina, at the urging of Governor Barbour, the US Army Corps of Engineers proposed a regional general permit for coastal Mississippi that would have allowed developers to destroy up to 5 acres of wetlands without public comment or environmental review, a ten-fold increase from the pre-hurricane standard. After resistance from residents of the Turkey Creek watershed and a broad coalition of local and national groups, the Corps withdrew the proposal. It later issued a revised permit allowing destruction of up to 3 acres, and, hoping to avoid controversy, exempted the Turkey Creek watershed. TCCI/Turkey Creekkeeper, in coalition with other partners, has sued the Corps anyway. Learn more...
No one who has visited Turkey Creek, fellowshipped with residents, or seen TCCI and its partners in action can deny the beauty, importance or drama of this incredible place and work. Nor can we deny that you have become an important part of our story. For such a small community and watershed, this has been an amazing crossroads of people, sights and happenings - a whole lot more than we could ever document without your help. Recovery volunteers and others who have come through and touched our lives can continue to make a difference by sharing their memories with us. Please help by sending pictures (or video) of important community sights - including yourself - that capture the activities, people and scenes of Turkey Creek's rich and continuing history (including our challenges). Simply mail a cd or dvd, or e-mail for easy instructions on uploading your files. We will gladly credit you as the photographer for images that we use on our website or elsewhere.
May 9, 2007 We did it. The fight is far from over, but we've won at least this battle. Read more here... (WLOX-TV). Learn more...
Since testifying November 1 before the US House Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census, TCCI's Executive Director has logged thousands of additional miles between Gulfport, Jackson and DC -hoping to promote affordable housing recovery, heritage preservation and environmental stewardship for Turkey Creek and the larger Gulf Coast region. Stay tuned for his regular updates on these issues, as well as news about TCCI Learn more...
For years, community leader Rose Johnson dreamed of an outdoor classroom for North Gulfport schoolchildren on her beloved Turkey Creek. After months of planning and sweat, one was finally dedicated on July 30. Built in 4 short weeks by 26 teens from Visions Service Adventures, the open-air structure and nearby creek trail mark an important step forward in realizing the community’s goal of an urban greenway along Turkey Creek. Visions, a cross-cultural immersion and volunteer service group for high school students, will return next summer for an additional project in the watershed – most likely, a nature/biking trail atop the Forest Heights levee. Learn more...
Founded after the Civil War as an African-American “land-grant” college, Alcorn State University recently adopted the Turkey Creek community – a “natural” sibling with similar roots in American history. Soon after freed blacks settled Turkey Creek on the gulf coast in1866, Alcorn was named in honor of Mississippi’s reconstruction governor, James L. Alcorn (1871). Since then, a number of men and women from the Turkey Creek-North Gulfport area have studied there – a school whose first president, Hiram Revels, was also the first African-American to serve as a US Senator. Funded by a two-year grant from HUD, the university’s “Katrina Response Team” recently set up a computer resource center at Turkey Creek’s Mount Pleasant UMC, and a mobile clinic staffed by Alcorn nursing students and faculty will provide residents with free monthly health screenings. Learn more...
FACT: There has been more loss of Turkey Creek’s diminishing resources in the six months since Hurricane Katrina than in the one-year period preceding it. Judging from the massive four-panel billboard and car dealer lot recently planted near the community’s heart, nothing much different can be expected from local authorities or developers who insist on viewing the lower Turkey Creek basin as coastal Mississippi’s “economic center of gravity.” City ordinances and state and federal environmental laws are currently being flouted at great expense to TC - all in the name of recovery and growth. Learn more...
Turkey Creek Community Initiatives
TCCI Headquarters
14439 Rippy Road
Gulfport MS 39503
228 863 0099 phone
228 863 0847 fax
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