Biloxi, Mississippi: Moran Art Studio - Skeletons under the Floor (Gone)

Unusual display of human remains visible through glass under an artist's studio. Since Hurricane Katrina, skeletons no longer on display.

I was in Biloxi two weeks after Hurricane Camille [1969] and we walked the beach in front of the house with the skeletons underneath (exposed by the hurricane). I discovered what we thought was an Indian bead, but instead was something from a piece of jewelry that must have washed away from the grave site. It was definitely connected, and from the site!

The State of Mississippi, the City of Biloxi, U.S.M., and the Moran family held a memorial service to the people who died and were buried at the site. The bones were interred during a funeral at the site. The cemetery will be kept and honored as the Second Oldest European Cemetery in the United States. The people did have a proper burial. Hurricane Katrina showed its force once again.

The skeletons at Moran's Art Studio made it into the 2008 edition of Ripley's Believe It of Not. The book talks of the skeletons under the floor and includes a photograph. Although the studio was destroyed, the skeletons remain. The University of Southern Mississippi's archeology department has excavated several more and expect additional finds. Study and research leads the university to theorize this could be the site of the oldest European cemetery in the United States. Future plans are for a five year excavation of the property which is expected to produce a wealth of historical information.

Moran's Art is temporarily located in Ocean Springs, Ms. 1201 Bienville Blvd. ( Hwy.90 ). The skeletons were still there after the hurricane. The latest update is they are considered to be the oldest and the only French colonial burial site in the U.S. University of Southern Mississippi has most of the skeletons for safe keeping. I'd like to rebury them right where they were.