Fire ravages 19th-century Christian campground in western N.C. Investigation underway

An investigation has been launched regarding a fire that destroyed more than three dozen structures at a beloved 150-year-old religious campground in western North Carolina.

Catawba County Emergency Management said 40 cabins were destroyed and nine were damaged Sunday night at Balls Creek Campground, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Catawba County Sheriff’s Office said “evidence” found at the site led them to “consider the fire to be suspicious,” according to the Hickory Daily Record.

“Joint local, state and federal task force (is) investigating cause of fire,” the department said on Twitter. “Hearts are heavy today with the loss at this special place!”

Officials are looking for witnesses to the fire, the county said.

Catawba County sent out a series of tweets around 11:30 p.m. Sunday noting 30 percent of the wooden cabins at the 33-acre site continued to burn as teams from more than a dozen departments tried to control the fire.

It was not reported if any of the cabins were occupied at the time. The fire began around 9:30 p.m., the Hickory Record & Landmark reported.

County officials said the fire was brought under control around 2 a.m., adding “numerous cabins destroyed.” No cause has been released.

The fire comes at a time when counties in western North Carolina are enduring a moderate to severe drought that has caused heightened concerns about wildfires.

Cabins at Balls Creek are often referred to as tents, but are built like wooden row houses, sharing a common wall, officials said on the campground’s website.

The oldest section of the camp was established in the 1850s, and “is believed to be one of the largest religious campgrounds in the southern United States,” according to the campground’s Facebook page.

Balls Creek Campground posted an update on its website Sunday, acknowledging the fire:

“At the present time, fire fighters are still on the scene tending to hot spots. It is estimated that 35 tents are either totally destroyed or heavily damaged,” the update said. “Please stay away from the area until further notice so that the fire fighters and investigators can do their jobs safely.”

Balls Creek Campground is “a historic Methodist camp meeting” place, about 45 miles northwest of Charlotte, according to its Facebook page.

“The district encompasses 138 contributing buildings and 1 contributing site. They include the Arbor (c. 1930), tents dating back to the 1850s, store or ‘The Shack’ (c. 1940), and jail dated to the late-19th/early 20th century. The camp meeting was established in 1853,” the page says.

Officials have not said if any of the oldest cabins, dating to the 1850s, were among those destroyed Sunday night. A fire in 1956 destroyed 130 structures at the site, camp officials said.

This story was originally published September 30, 2019 at 10:54 AM with the headline "Fire ravages 19th-century Christian campground in western N.C. Investigation underway."