Old Methodist Campmeeting

Bend's camp meeting is still held, and not as a relic. The church that keeps it says it has been held at the campground every year since 1858, once in August after the harvest and now over four days, Thursday through Sunday. Each night brings a meal and a message from a guest preacher, and the Friday fish fry and Sunday dinner on the grounds are fixtures. Members tell of couples who met there and of other camp meetings begun from it. The grounds are private land and the meeting is the congregation's own.

What the plaque says

Old Methodist Campmeeting Established in August 1858 by settlers who came armed against possible Indian attack. Preacher hung gun in tree, within reach; guard was posted around congregation's horses to prevent theft by Indians. However, no attack was ever reported here, though many terrible Indian depredations occurred nearby. Preacher in 1858 was a circuit rider, Rev. Tunnell. Jim Clark family came 10 miles in ox-drawn farm sled to first campmeeting. Charter members included families of Ezekiel Boyett, Fielding Dawson, Nay Gorman, John and Joab Harrell, Sr., Charles Harris, S. A. Houston, Dave Hillin, George Keeney, Dick Kolb, Milton Low, Bart Lucas, McCrea, David Matsler, Jim Means, W. W. Millican, Henry Ripple, Harmon Smelser, Tom Smith, Tom and Yancy Tate and Jim Ware. Coming between summer farm and ranch work and the autumn harvest, campmeeting was yearly season for spiritual and social enjoyment. Many marriages followed courtships that began here. Mrs. David Matsler donated original campsite. Mrs. E. E. West and R. H. Walton gave additional acreage. Lots were held by families--some for 6 generations. Present tabernacle is replacement for arbors made of brush and renewed year after year by settlers. (1966)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado Bend State Park — 4.2 mi
  Old ranch country on the Colorado above Lake Buchanan, where a spring-fed creek drops 70 feet over fern-covered travertine at Gorman Falls.
• Hancock Springs Park — 21 mi
  Lampasas's city park on Sulphur Creek, with a spring-fed swimming pool that holds about 69 degrees all year, the walls of the old bathhouse and a golf course.
• Llano County Courthouse Square — 24 mi
  The 1893 Romanesque courthouse on Llano's square, built after a fire at the height of a boom that was meant to make the granite town an iron city.
• Inks Lake State Park — 25 mi
  A state park on a constant-level lake of the Colorado, between Buchanan and Inks dams, with pink granite and gneiss at the water and CCC work along Park Road 4.

More markers nearby

• Chadwick's Mill — 10 mi
• Site of Old Town of Senterfitt — 11 mi
• Senterfitt Cemetery — 11 mi
• Nix — 11 mi