Such tall standing and sturdy trees drew the attention of early European explorers to the area as a source for ship masts.

In 1810, an official Spanish land grant of approximately 500 acres was acquired by Dr. Ambrose Gaines, who immodestly named the settlement "Gainesville.

"[3] In 1813, during the War of 1812, General Andrew Jackson marched his forces through Gainesville [citation needed] shortly before the Battle of New Orleans.

[5] The Gainesville Volunteers were organized in 1860 and made up Company G of the 3rd Mississippi Infantry of the Confederate States Army, serving at Vicksburg and Atlanta during the Civil War.

[7] Gainesville began to suffer decline in the latter half of the 19th century, due largely to the emergence of railroads as a means for timber transportation.

The story of Gainesville's decline is one shared by many communities and towns at the time, which underwent rapid population shifts after a growing railroad industry bypassed once thriving settlements.

According to NASA's Cultural Resources Center, other elements of the town were described as: "...a hotel called the Gainesville Exchange, a track for horse racing, one or more coffee houses, two barrooms, two drug stores, a Masonic Lodge, shops, stables, brick factories, a telegraph office, dry dock facilities, a steamboat landing, stores for distilling turpentine and other resinous products, and, of course, saw mills."

[12] A 1963 article in the Picayune Item newspaper reported NASA's effort to protect a (at the time) "75-year-old Wistaria (sic) Vine" located near the Rouchon House.

The article reported "some old timers believe {the vine} may be the largest in the world" and described it as "a foot thick and it has spread all over the ground and an adjacent cedar tree sixty of seventy feet tall.