According to local tradition, this African Methodist Episcopal Zion campground was established circa 1870. Instrumental in organizing the campground was former slave Isom Caleb Clinton, who was ordained bishop of the church in 1892. Through the years the campground has flourished, and hundreds now participate in the annual ecumenical encampment. Mount Carmel A.M.E.Z. Campground was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Frederick A. Clinton (1834-1890), organizer and lifetime trustee of Mount Carmel, brother of Bishop I. C. Clinton, and the first Lancaster County black elected to the S.C. Senate from 1870 to 1877, is buried here.