Team of archaeologists scour Escatawpa River floor for Moss Point's town cannon

The Republic (Columbus, IN): Team of archaeologists scour Escatawpa River floor for Moss Point's town cannon
MOSS POINT, Miss. — An expert in the field of underwater archaeology brought his state-of-the-art technology to the Escatawpa River recently to look for a "small" piece of artillery thought to be a mid-19th century cannon.

A grant from the Mississippi Gulf Coast National Heritage Area and private donations made possible an extensive magnetometer survey directed by Michael K. Faught, a senior maritime archaeologist with Panamerican Consultants Inc. of Memphis, Tenn.

Newspaper accounts and oral history indicate Moss Point's town cannon was dumped in the river near and slightly north of the present-day downtown river walk and piers.

Dr. Chris Wiggins of Pascagoula is leading an effort to locate, raise and restore the cannon. A Jackson County orthopedic surgeon, he is president-elect of the Jackson County Historical and Genealogical Society.

"Tradition held that the cannon had been left over from the Civil War," Wiggins said. "Through the later part of the 19th century, it was fired at special town celebrations. However, after a premature detonation injured two teenagers in April 1864 [doubtless the article author means 1964] , it was thrown into the Escatawpa River where it has remained, all but forgotten."

Although the collected magnetic data has to be further processed and analyzed, initial findings did not disappoint.

"We obtained some very interesting hits with our equipment," Faught said. "Your waterway has been a busy little place over the years. But we definitely found one shipwreck, possibly a 19th century schooner, maybe another shipwreck, and one object that is most intriguing. We will have to process the data before we can come to any firm conclusions."

Using side scan sonar, Faught and his associate, underwater archaeologist James Duff, completed the Escatawpa River project in 3 hours. A 20-foot boat pulled the sonar equipment up and down the river while local society member Buck Redmond and a few other spectators watched.

"The magnetometer is towed back and forth over the designated area and measures magnetic fields, detects metal, not only underwater, but also under the silt bottom," Wiggins said. "It is towed well behind the boat because the boat itself has magnetic properties. We are hoping final results will show a metal signature that would be the cannon."

Data collected by computer equipment and software aboard the boat will be processed and prepared for the local Cannon Recovery Committee. The report will include the team's findings and provide exact Global Positioning System coordinates for all notable objects.

"Our goal is to locate and raise the cannon, then restore it and place it on display, probably right here on the riverbank," Wiggins said, "Not only is it a piece of long lost local history, but it will be an inspiration to others to pursue historical research."