Travelling by Trolley in Mississippi

"Travelling by Trolley in Mississippi: Stories about Streetcars” was written by Frank A. Brooks and published in Southern Traction, a magazine of the Texas Division of the Electric Railroaders Association, in September 1983. Mississippi has always been a rural state. Therefore, it may be surprising that there were, at one time, 13 electric railway companies operating within the state. They varied in size; the largest was the Gulfport and Mississippi Coast Traction Company, which operated up to 30 miles of track, the majority of which were in the 22 miles of interurban line between Biloxi and Pass Christian. The remaining 8 miles of track provided local streetcar service in Biloxi and Gulfport. The smallest company was Yazoo City’s Public Service Commission’s railroad which operated over 4.3 miles of track. Other street railway lines in Mississippi were operated at Jackson, Meridian, Vicksburg, Hattiesburg, Laurel, Natchez, Greenville, Columbus, Pascagoula, DeSoto County (Lakeview), and McComb.Streetcars were the imprinter or proof that a village had become a city. From the 1880′s to the 1920′s Mississippi “city pride” tried to the show the world! They had street railways. We all still marvel and try to recall what it was like.