Mysterious angels appearing at Lighthouse Park in Biloxi

Small angel statues keep mysteriously appearing in the Biloxi Light House Park. No one seems to know why or how they got there. Local historians say the angels may have something to do with the skeletal remains of early French settlers that researchers uncovered years ago.
It’s the mystery of Biloxi Light House Park: small angel statues started to show up almost two years ago and to this day, as to who put them there remains unknown. Biloxi Visitors Center Historic Administrator Bill Raymond said, “One angel kind of appeared. One day we just came in the park and found an angel right here by the dedicate plaque for the park.”
Over time, more angels started to pop up around the park, hidden in bushes and under trees. Raymond counted ten Monday. “Some of them are plaster and some of them are more concrete. Every angel is different.”
The angels appeared even before a bigger angel statue was donated across the street in memory of dozens of European burials that surfaced after Hurricane Camille. The weeping angel that looks over the remains is believed to have been of those who immigrated to Biloxi during the early 1700s.
Local historians think the angels may have symbolized the nameless dead whose remains were found near the visitor’s center. Thirty male skeletons were found on the grounds of the cemetery which now stands as the second oldest French colonial cemetery in the United States. Harrison County History Librarian Jane Shambra said, “Maybe there was some additional respect or some sadness came about after that. People thought they should do something.”
Another theory that local historians say the angels may symbolize are the lives that were lost during Hurricane Katrina. “It’s one of those things that if somebody wanted us to know who was responsible they would have told us,” said Raymond.
The explanation as to why the statues first turned up in the park remains a mystery, but officials say the angels are here to stay. “Kind of gives you a warm feeling that things are being taken care of on the Coast and that there’s a warm feeling about the people who lived here so very, very long ago,” said Shambra.