Balls Creek Campground
Balls Creek Campground is a historic Methodist camp meeting and national historic district located near Bandy's Crossroads, Catawba County, North Carolina. The district encompasses 138 contributing buildings and 1 contributing site. They include the Arbor, "tents" dating back to the 1850s, a store called "The Shack", and jail dated to the late-19th / early-20th century. The site was established in 1853 and is believed to be one of the largest religious campgrounds in the southern United States. A camp meeting continues to be held there every August, with "tents" selling for as much as $65,000 each.
The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
On September 29, 2019, a "suspicious" fire destroyed or damaged 40 of the site's 295 cabins and elicited the response of more than 14 fire departments and over 100 firefighters from Catawba and surrounding counties.
