Bay Springs is a city in and the western county seat of Jasper County, Mississippi. The population was 1,786 at the 2010 census. State highways 15 and 18 intersect at the city. It is part of the Laurel, Mississippi micropolitan area.This area was settled in the 1880s by Joe Blankenship, who built the sawmill for the yellow pine timber industry that comprised the town's industrial base. The city was incorporated about twenty years later after railroads were constructed through it. That access attracted other industry and business, and the city was designated as the second county seat. Its population has declined slightly since 2000.