Since the camp and cabins (tents) here date back to the early 1800’s shooting/publishing in color doesn’t usually fit.
These buildings are raw and the images I shoot when visiting try to reflect that.
Inside some of the materials are still from the first build. This section around 1848.
There are 99 cabins, called tents, laid out to circle a Tabernacle as described in the Bible. At one point I knew the chapter…long gone from my head LOL.
There was still a camp meeting in 2020.
Old rusted stove pipes always get my attention, it’s a throw back to the way things were. Except in these places. Here they are for cooking, heating, and living when in the cabins.
I am of that ‘age’ where I know how it feels to touch one, when you shouldn’t.
Times have changed and now I see them for how well they age and color in photographs.
A small slice of America, Indian Fields Methodist Camp.
Everything looked pretty drab and colorless. Brown being the Fall shades out there. The grass is dried and brittle too.
And yet, a blue bucket over the chimney top. You could not miss it, or not photograph it.
Indian Fields, SC.
Stopped by to visit some history, after we went out to vote.
Camp revivals since 1848.
Shady Grove is a United Methodist Campground church meeting grounds. Similar to the Cypress and Indian Field sights. However Shady Grove was founded after the Civil War in 1870. The others are older, from the late 1700’s.
As with other Methodist Campgrounds meetings (revivals) are still held each year.
Shady Grove is on land given to a group of newly freed African American slaves in exchange for help harvesting a rice plantation.
Shady Grove has a history of troubles. In 1958, 1969, and 1978 the buildings were destroyed by fire. In 1991 the camp was rebuilt and is now the largest of their kind.
Click image to view full size.
The Methodist Campgrounds have been the source for numerous articles here.
To view additional Campgrounds please click the ‘Tag’ below marked Camp. The articles will be displayed…enjoy it’s a fascinating trip.
First glances around Shady Grove.
A United Methodist Campground.
At a Methodist Campground, a location for community revival meetings, the cabins are referred to as tents.
The Israelites erected 99 tents around their Tabernacle in Leviticus (pretty sure that’s the chapter) which is the exact design here. These 99 tents/cabins surround the Tabernacle in the center of the open field.
Photographs taken outside St. George, South Carolina.
This tabernacle is surrounded by 99 ‘tents’, old cabins really, and is used for revival style Methodist Church meetings once a year. Camp meetings at Indian Field started in 1801, down the road, and moved here in 1838. A revival has been held here every year since.
Note; there are several camps around South Carolina, we have previously published articles on a few including this one.
Very often the early “fire and brimstone” sermons would bring in more people than a house or a church building could handle. This tabernacle can seat about 1,000 people.
The layout of Indian Fields is based on the biblical story of the Israelites erecting tents, representing the tribes of Israel, encircling a tabernacle. Electricity has been added as well as basic well water.
It’s best described as an adventure to experience and photograph all this history.
Click any image to view a full size image.
