The first camp meeting on this site was held in 1828 by a few scattered Methodists before any Methodist church in the area was organized. William Hendry, William Blair, and Hamilton W. Sharpe, serving as a committee, selected the site, and Rev. Adam Wyrick was the first visiting preacher. In 1831 Sion and Enoch Hall deeded the land on which the camp ground stood to the Methodist Episcopal Church. First housed in a brush-arbor, the weeklong meetings continued without interruption until 1881, when the camp meetings ceased and the nearby church was built. Meetings were held practically continuously each day from sunrise until after candle-lighting.