With stunning views of the Mississippi Sound and the Gulf of Mexico, Biloxi, Mississippi is the southeastern-most city in Harrison County. Gulfport is to its west, D’Iberville to the north, and Jackson County just east over the Biloxi Bay Bridge. Approximately 45,000 people reside in the city that accommodates many tourists each year.

Long before European settlement, the area was inhabited by the Biloxi Tribe. Today’s culture of the Mississippi Gulf Coast is the product of a unique blend of ethnic groups that is the result of multiple waves of migration to the area over the course of the past 300 years. Many of the Coast’s modern cultural resources, including businesses, social halls, and sacred places, are directly related to these ethnic groups. Many events celebrated along the Coast represent its rich cultural heritage celebrations, such as Lunar New Year, Mardi Gras, and the Blessing of the Fleet.

A significant event in the history of Biloxi and the Mississippi Gulf Coast was the development of the modern seafood industry during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Fortunes were made by some in the seafood industry, but for most people, the seafood industry meant hard work on a boat or in a processing factory. Croatians, Yugoslavs, French, and Vietnamese people came to Biloxi to work in what was once known as “The Seafood Capital of the World.” 

In 1941, Keesler Army Airfield, now know as Keesler Air Force Base, was established and today is one of the largest employers in the area. By the early 1990s, gaming was legalized and Biloxi’s economy once more flourished. Casinos, have replaced seafood as the major industry in Biloxi.