Balls Creek’s 173rd Camp Meeting Wraps Up This Week

If you’ve noticed extra cars parked along Buffalo Shoals Road in Catawba this month, that’s Balls Creek Campground — and this is its 173rd consecutive year. The 2026 camp meeting runs August 9–23, which means there’s still a little time left before it wraps up.

Balls Creek is one of three camp meetings with direct roots in our area, alongside Rock Springs (which actually started in Terrell back in 1794) and Motts Grove, which happens every year right on Sherrills Ford Road. Balls Creek itself split off from Rock Springs in 1853, after Lincoln County divided into Catawba and Lincoln counties. Its current arbor was built in 1935, the grounds hold roughly 300 family “tents” — wooden structures passed down for generations, not actual tents — and during camp meeting, tent No. 283 opens as a small history museum.

This isn’t a festival that gets planned fresh every summer. For a lot of local families, it’s inherited property and an inherited week on the calendar, going back further than almost anything else still happening in this area today.

We’ve put together the fuller history — Rock Springs, Balls Creek, and Motts Grove — on our History & Heritage page, which we’ll keep updated as camp meeting season comes back around each year. Sources: Balls Creek Campground · Rock Springs Camp Meeting.