Serving a special function were the campgrounds where Protestant
religious meetings were held once or twice a year, usually during
“laying-by” time. The early camp meetings were held in an arbor-like
shelter constructed of oak posts with V-tops forming a frame for
horizontal poles that were then covered with leafy branches. This
shelter was called the tabernacle. Rough plank seats were constructed by
laying long planks on supports held up by stakes driven in the ground.
The dirt floor was covered with pine straw or sawdust to keep the dust
down and the pulpit was made of rough planks. Smaller shelters called
tents where the people camped out were built around the tabernacle and
furnished with pine plank or pole beds and tables, straw and shuck
mattresses. Later more substantial campgrounds, such as present-day
Salem Church campground, were built with a permanent tabernacle and
sturdy cabins. The Salem Campground on the Jackson-George County line is
the oldest extant campground in the state (Fig. 27). The first camp
meeting at Salem was held in 1826 and the present site was selected in
1842. The campground today is still arranged in the original U-shape,
but the materials of the buildings have been replaced. The tabernacle is
built of rough lumber, with three sides open and log posts supporting
the roof. The floor, covered with pine straw, holds wooden benches which
can seat 300 people. The cabins which surround the tabernacle are still
traditionally known as “tents.” Each cabin has two rooms, one for
sleeping, one for eating, cooking, or sitting, and the floors are
covered with pine straw. A wooden bench adorns each front porch. The
oldest tent on the campground is the Parker tent built around 1880.
Meetings have been held every year at Salem Campground since 1826 except
for two years during the Civil War.