Gulf and Ship Island Railroad

The Gulf and Ship Island Railroad was first chartered in 1850 and operated from 1882 to 1925 entirely within the state of Mississippi, headquartered in Gulfport, which it built to open the region's yellow pine forests to commercial harvest and to develop as a shipping port. The Illinois Central Railroad acquired the company in 1925, and its line later became part of the Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad, which merged into the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad in 1940.