Balls Creek Campground

Balls Creek Campground is a 33.1-acre Methodist camp meeting site near Bandy's Crossroads in Catawba County, North Carolina. Area Methodists began holding meetings here in 1853, and the August revival has continued almost every year since, with pauses during the Civil War, in 1888 and during World War II. At the center is an open pole arbor, built around 1930 to replace an earlier one. Around it stand rows of narrow, gable-roofed wooden "tents" that share common walls and front on continuous covered walkways. The grounds also hold a circa 1940 store and a small jail. A fire in 1956 destroyed about 130 tents, most of which were rebuilt to traditional designs. The campground matters as a religious gathering place that drew up to 10,000 people at its closing sessions and as a social institution where families spent their vacations. Its arbor and tents also illustrate camp meeting architecture. The period of significance runs from 1853 to 1939.