Harrell Camp Ground was one of the first religious sites in Hunt County and remained influential for 50 years. Early settler Richard Harrell built cabins and a brush arbor there in the 1850s. In summer, while crops grew and work was slack, Methodist gospel services drew people from many counties. Families forded the Sabine River with milch cows, cook stoves, bedding, wash tubs, and water barrels to camp for weeks. Children and adults sang hymns, studied scriptures, and listened to sermons, providing diversions in hard and lonely lives. In the months between camp meetings, passing travelers often found shelter there.