Balls Creek Campground

Balls Creek Campground is a historic Methodist camp meeting and national historic district located near Bandy's Crossroads, Catawba County, North Carolina. The district encompasses 138 contributing buildings and 1 contributing site. They include the Arbor (c. 1930), "tents" (individual family dwellings) dating back to the 1850s, a store called "The Shack" (c. 1940), and jail dated to the late-19th / early-20th century. The site was established in 1853 and is believed to be one of the largest religious campgrounds in the southern United States.[2] A camp meeting continues to be held there every August, with "tents" selling for as much as $65,000 each.[3]

Balls Creek Campground
Balls Creek Campground, July 2010
LocationWest side of SR 1003, 0.1 miles (0.16 km) south of SR 1943, near Bandy's Crossroads, North Carolina
Coordinates35°37′46″N 81°05′50″W
Area31.1 acres (12.6 ha)
MPSCatawba County MPS
NRHP reference No.90000662[1]
Added to NRHPApril 27, 1990

The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.[1]

On September 29, 2019, a "suspicious" fire destroyed or damaged 40 of the site's 295 cabins and elicited the response of more than 14 fire departments and over 100 firefighters from Catawba and surrounding counties.[4]

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. Barbara Kooiman and Michael Hill (July 1989). "Balls Creek Campground" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2014-08-01.
  3. "Balls Creek Campmeeting is tradition, way of life and memories | The Observer News Enterprise". www.observernewsonline.com. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  4. Esposito, Gina; Faherty, Dave. "Investigators: Fire at historic campground set; no arrests made". WSOC TV.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.