Funky Texas Traveler

Be a traveler, not a tourist. Dig deeper, learn more.

  • About
  • Attitude
    • Camping
    • How to survive and thrive when your reputation tanks – Life lessons from Mark White
    • 8 steps to unexpected success from Texas Fruitcake Queen
    • 5 Road Trip Luxuries You Shouldn’t Travel Without
    • 5 steps to grow your adventure outlook!
    • Smart Souvenir Shopping
    • Have Fun Flying – Southwest Airlines
    • Strange Places to Stay
    • Start a Party- Galveston Mardi Gras
    • We have only now!
    • Lifetime of fun at National Parks
    • Surviving Hurricane Harvey flooding – 8 practical ways to cope
    • Life’s Detours
      • Cancer
        • Breast Cancer – Think you might have it? What happens now?
        • Breast Cancer. 5 steps to take before treatment
        • My Breast Cancer Experience – A Month at MD Anderson Cancer Center
  • People
    • How to survive and thrive when your reputation tanks – Life lessons from Mark White
    • “John Cody” movie
    • 8 stupidly-simple ways the Texas Fruitcake Queen built big success
  • Places
    • Texas
      • Central Texas
        • Guadalupe River
          • Guadalupe River Luxury
          • Guadalupe River Rustic Weekend
          • Guadalupe River Tubing & Camping on River Road
        • Llano
          • Wedding haunted by Bonnie & Clyde memories
        • San Antonio
          • San Antonio Beyond the Alamo
          • Alamo City Eats
        • Schulenberg/Flatonia/Dubina
          • 8 stupidly-simple ways the Texas Fruitcake Queen built big success
      • Coastal Texas
        • Baffin Bay
          • King’s Inn – Loyola Beach, Texas
        • Boca Chica
        • Houston
          • Houston’s Best Bars and Restaurants for Sports Fans
        • Galveston
          • Galveston – Frozen in time
          • Galveston Mardi Gras
          • Big Ass Crawfish Bash
        • Port Aransas
          • Port Aransas – Best Beach Town in Texas
          • Port Aransas Farley Boat Works damaged by hurricane
          • Port Aransas post Harvey
        • South Padre Island
      • West Texas
        • Alpine
        • Big Bend National Park
          • 5 Reasons to visit Big Bend National Park
        • El Paso
        • Fort Davis
          • Frontier faith in far West Texas – Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting
        • Marfa, Texas
        • Terlingua Ghost Town
        • Wander West Texas
    • Not Texas
      • California
        • Yosemite or Yellowstone National Park
      • Louisiana
        • New Orleans
        • St. Martinville
          • Cajun Country
      • Minnesota
        • Boundary Waters BWCA
      • Mississippi
        • Meridian
      • Montana
        • Yosemite or Yellowstone National Park
      • New Mexico
        • Deming and Columbus
      • North Carolina
        • Asheville
        • Blue Ridge Parkway
      • Pennsylvania
        • Gettysburg
      • Utah
        • Yosemite or Yellowstone National Park
      • Virginia
        • Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive
      • Wyoming
        • Yosemite or Yellowstone National Park
    • Not Texas or the US
      • Belize
      • Caribbean
        • How hurricane hijacked Caribbean sailing vacation in BVI
      • Canada
        • Boundary Waters BWCA
    • Road Trip
  • Events
    • Festivals
      • Faith
        • Frontier faith in far West Texas – Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting
      • Food
      • Holiday
      • Music
    • Texas Country Music Cruise
  • Contact
  • Start A Blog
    • Help me understand blog talk!!!
    • How to start your blog
  • Recommendations
    • Food
      • Houston’s Best Bars and Restaurants for Sports Fans
      • King’s Inn – Loyola Beach, Texas
    • Transportation
      • Southwest Airlines Boarding Game

Nov 16 2017

Frontier faith in far West Texas – Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting

Bloys-Cowboy-Campmeeting-Frontier-Faith-in-Far-West-Texas-690x400 Frontier faith in far West Texas - Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting
By Fredlyfish4 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Before Sutherland Springs became infamous for the killing of twenty-six people at a Baptist church service, that little town had a lot in common with the  128-year-old Bloys Cowboy Camp meeting we discovered outside Fort Davis.  Both towns once helped pioneer religion flourish with their giant outdoor gatherings.  Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting  is still practicing frontier faith in far West Texas  in a compound little changed in all these years.   

Camp meetings were  a phenomenon of frontier Christianity.  The concept was  brought west by thousands of settlers of Scot-Irish roots.  These settlers were moving into new territories without towns or churches or ordained ministers.   Itinerant preachers filled the void, finding an open patch of ground for a pulpit.   Word would  then spread to isolated settlers who traveled miles and days to get a religious experience and some feeling of community.   

A needed spiritual and physical break

The camp meeting’s non-stop preaching and singing paid off.  Whether people came because of sincere religious devotion or interest, or because they needed a break from the arduous routine; they often left as  new converts ready for the next meeting.

While  the sulfur springs made Sutherland Springs  an early tourist destination and a draw for big revivals and events,  towns around Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting like Fort Davis had no such appeal.  In West Texas, many residents still live in  as isolated a situation as in 1910, when a camp meeting in more centrally-located Sutherland Springs drew over 2500 people.


Campmeeting longevity in different communities

Floods and the completion of Highway 87 made Sutherland Springs almost a ghost town by 1940.   It’s now a rural suburb of San Antonio.  Permanent places of worship like the unlucky First Baptist Church sustain neighbors in good and bad times.  For Sutherland Springs,  camp meetings are a historical footnote.   Yet Bloys Cowboy campmeetings are alive and well into the 21rst century thanks to its remote location.

Hidden on the Davis Mountains Scenic Loop

We found the site of the Bloys Cowboys campmeeting by accident.  With a few hours to kill after leaving the Davis Mountain State Park,  we turned onto the nearby scenic loop .  We were operating with no map and  only the highway signs to direct us.  

When I did finally got hold of a map,  well after our drive, it had this warning: “The Scenic Loop is  75 miles of majestic scenery and wildlife.  It takes two hours to complete without stopping.  Be sure you have plenty of gas, water, and snacks.  Please respect the privacy of others by staying on the pavement – Thank you.”

Experiencing the isolation

The scenic loop delivered on the promised majestic scenery and endless driving.  After an hour, we began to appreciate the  isolation that these spread out homesteads lived with daily.   I am glad we took the loop but I found myself longing to pass another car or see a mailbox, any kind of indication of human life.Bloys-Cowboy-Campmeeting-West-Texas-248x400 Frontier faith in far West Texas - Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting

Towards the end of the drive, we passed a forbidding and austere compound  in an area of the Davis Mountains called Skillman Grove.  It was easy to think Branch Davidians or a lawless polygamist sect in this solitary setting.  A metal sign read “Bloys Campmeeting”.  The place looked completely deserted and yet impecably well maintained.  

W. B. Bloys more influential than Judge Roy Bean

Once I got an internet connection on the Amtrak back to Houston,  I looked up Bloys  Cowboy Campmeeting.  There I learned about William B. Bloys in  Texas Escapes  and the Texas State Historical Association Handbook.  Each source had a lengthy write-up on Bloys.  One went  on to say that  while Roy Bean is much more colorful and widely known,  Bloys  was far more influential in frontier days and up to the present. 

W. B. Bloys was a  Presbyterian home missionary serving in Fort Davis. Because the ranches of the region have always been widely separated,  it was impossible for frontier families to worship with neighbors and friends.  Setting aside modern doctrinal divisions, Bloys made  saving  the entire flock of the area  his primary responsibility.

Sustaining frontier faith in far West Texas was hard work

No matter what their denomination, Bloys rode and ministered to many of the outlying ranches situated in the same mountainous area we’d driven through recently.   It had taken hours in a car.   What must it be like on a horse?

Davis-Mountains-home-of-Bloys-Cowboy-Campmeeting-600x400 Frontier faith in far West Texas - Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting
Image by Charlie Llewellin via flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0) 

In 1890,  Bloys made a plan to bring local families together annually for religious services. He organized an old-style camp meeting and 48 people from remote towns and ranches rode in and  slept in tents and wagons. 

First Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting

Those first campers  met under a brush arbor and then in a canvas tent. In 1912,  a permanent tabernacle was built for services.  Eventually the camp expanded into six areas with eating sheds where families gathered.  Cooking is still ranch-style on open fires. Wooden, stone and metal buildings dot the one-square mile area which butts up to the  Davis Mountain foothills.  It was those structures that first caught my attention.  

Today over 2,500 people regularly make the annual pilgrimage to Skillmans Grove from the  first Tuesday through Sunday of August.  Nothing is sold.   Money for lodging and food is donated with friends sharing cooking and maintenance duties.  August 2016 was the 128th camp meeting. 


3rd and 4th generation attendees

Many who come are fourth and fifth generation descendants of the original attendees, making their 60th or 70th visit to the gathering.  Still, modern times have intruded a little into this cherished piece of the past.I checked Bloyscampmeeting.org (yes, they have a website) and read a letter admonishing campers for a few transgressions that William B. Bloys could never have imagined: 

  • Do not drive between the Means-­‐‑Evans cookshed and the Tabernacle… during a church service. The noise of a vehicle …distracts churchgoers from the music team’s and pastor’s messages.
  • The general rules should want to be kept by all…Whether it’s pets, alcohol, licensed drivers, or even boulder rolling. 

 I think I know what boulder rolling is but it’s interesting that the problem is significant enough to warrant a rule.

Tale of Two Camp meetings

So the Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting of the Davis Mountains continues because the population density and proximity never made it obsolete.  In contrast,  small towns like Sutherland Springs moved into permanent churches which also continued to be the mainstay of their communities.  But the same strong faith is helping both congregations survive the worst that the past or present era throws at them. 

Serendipitous Discoveries 

Finding Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting site was a happy accident.  What accidental discoveries do you have to share?  I’m always looking for a reason to wander!

 

signature Frontier faith in far West Texas - Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting

Related Posts

  • river-road-with-text-150x150 Frontier faith in far West Texas - Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting
    Big Bend's River Road to Marfa and Ft. Davis
  • Why-you-should-visit-Marfa-on-a-Monday.jpg-150x150 Frontier faith in far West Texas - Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting
    Marfa, Texas
  • terlingua-feature-1080-150x150 Frontier faith in far West Texas - Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting
    Visting Terlingua - Big Bend ghost town that refused to die!

Filed Under: Events, Faith, Featured Post, Festivals, Fort Davis, Places, Texas, West Texas, West Texas · Tagged: Bloys Cowboy Campmeeting, campmeetings in Texas, Sutherland Springs

Please help me out.  Typos get by me.  See one? Please let me know so I can fix it!  Thanks,   Linda

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Search

Hey there!


please follow me


Just visiting someplace is boring – I dig around and roll in it. The people, the peculiarities and the hidden history that gives any destination its own unique story. Come excavate with me and let me know places I should go!

Traveling is my passion. What’s yours? Start a blog & share it!

How to start a blog and share your story
Whether you want to share family stories for your kids and grand-kids or become recognized expert in your field, blogging is your answer. Here's your step by step guide to get started.

Most Popular Posts

  • San Antonio south of Southtown – where to eat and drink

    San Antonio south of Southtown – where to eat and drink

    Discovering San Antonio south of Southtown helped me fall back in love with the Alamo City. Or more accurately, it took determining where to eat …
  • Plan to be flexible | #1 Lesson from Rally Recovery Drink | Texas startup success

    Plan to be flexible | #1 Lesson from Rally Recovery Drink | Texas startup success

    Texans know what it takes to succeed. Most will tell you it's critical to plan to be flexible. So flexible that you are open to …
  • Five Ways to Do Port Aransas Right | One Year After Hurricane Harvey

    Five Ways to Do Port Aransas Right | One Year After Hurricane Harvey

    Port Aransas has mostly recovered after worst hurricane season in U.S. history. Sadly, some beloved spaces are only sweet memories. Other hangouts seem comfortably the …
  • Lost at Buc-ee’s | How weird family stories start

    Lost at Buc-ee’s | How weird family stories start

    A man got lost at Buc-ee's in Katy, Texas. And stayed lost for over thirty minutes. Urban myth? No, I was there. How those weird …

How to start your blog

*If you have a passion, start at blog and share it!  Just click here for step by step guide.
 
 
 

Copyright © 2023 · Site design by Olive & Ivy Design