Lumpkin Campground in Dawsonville, GA


If you go shopping at the North Georgia Premium Outlets, be sure to exit out the back of the parking lot and turn right to take a quick detour down Lumpkin Campground Road.  A mile or so down the road you will come to this picturesque church campground.  This particular one is a Methodist Camp founded in 1830.  Although these family style campgrounds can be found in other states that aren't in the South, I consider them Quintessentially Southern because they are credited for making our Southern Bible Belt.     








These beautiful yet rustic cabins are called "tents".  They are built on cement slabs or on the dirt and encircle a large open air pavillion.  They are called "tents" because the earliest meetings were a gathering of Christians that circled up their wagons and tents in order to hold revival meetings in a field.  As the families continued meeting year after year in the same place, they began to build more permanent structures.  Even though they have electricity and running water, many still have dirt or sawdust floors.


    

        

The "tents" remain in families and get handed down from generation to generation.  Family members come each year for preaching, singing, and socializing.   The front porches face the meeting pavillion but the back doors are all different and face out at different lengths and shapes.












I love these neighborly hinged window slats on the sides of the "tents".  Not much privacy but the breezes refresh and carry in the sound of friendship and revival.










Hulls from the nuts of the hickory trees were scattered on the ground  when we visited the Lumpkin Campground on this beautiful February afternoon.






Camp meetings...a Southern experience!

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