Company history
Adrian D. and Ona S. Burns moved to and made the Mississippi Gulf Coast their home in 1951, where they raised their children. Mr. Burns was a bomber pilot in World War ll and retired as a Colonel from the U.S. Air Force. They bought and operated Gulf Haven Motor Court, a small Mom and Pop cottage-type motel located on this site.
When Hurricane Camille struck the Gulf Coast on August 17, 1969, Gulf Haven Motor Court and the Burns' home were destroyed. They obtained a SBA loan to rebuild their home and business, establishing Burnsway Trailer Park, which they operated until they both passed away.
In November of 2004, Diane Burns Henderson and Adrian W. Burns (children of Adrian D and Ona S. Burns), took over the management and operation of Burnsway Trailer Park and were fortunate to employ Mr. Robbie Graham as the resident manager who moved his family (wife Dena and daughters, Charity and Kay_Lynn) into the park.
Alas! August 29, 2005-Hurricane Katrina hit!! The Park, along with all the buildings, units, homes and infrastructures, were completely destroyed. We received containers (filled with chicken and shrimp), trucks, tires, paper rolls, lumber, t-shirts and anything else that had been stored at the port along with trailers, mobile homes and all other debris that a storm brings. Luckily we were able to account for every person who had been living in our park. No one was hurt.
We contacted FEMA about the site of our park, and were able to convince them to use our property to house the victims who had been left homeless because of the storm. We did not charge FEMA any rent because we had been left homless ourselves, and felt that we needed to give back to the community that had given so much to our family over the years. FEMA agreed to this plan and put in the infrastructure, complying with all city and state codes.
So our wonderful property was now a FEMA Park! Robbie and Dena (our managers) lived on the park premises and made sure it was a safe park to live in. (We were on National Television three times). We are proud to state that, to our knowledge, our park was the only FEMA Park that did not have any shootings, rapes, etc.
On November 1, 2007 FEMA withdrew all of their units and our property reverted back to private use. We started working...Making sure that everything was up to date, with the latest hook-ups, handicapped acessiblility, an office building, a bath house, an elevator, palm trees, internet access, cable television, pull-through spaces, and much more...We decided to revert back to the original name: Gulf Haven Campground...Truly a first class RV Park. Located 1/4 block from Highway 90 on Broad Avenue in Gulfport, MS.
Our property and our family have been through everything the Gulf Coast has to throw at us, and we still believe this is truly God's Country! Only by taking pride in our home and working together, will we be able to build the Gulf Coast back...Better than ever before!!!