Mount Zion Church Preservation Association

About this campground

The historic Mount Zion Old School Baptist Church was founded in 1850 by a splinter group of Old School conservative Baptists from the Little River Baptist Church. The group built a plain red brick church in 1851. Resting in the church's cemetery are members of the Congregation, along with both Union and Confederate Civil War soldiers. Outside the cemetery wall is an area where slaves, free blacks and the postwar black community were buried. The oldest tombstone in the cemetery dates back to 1852. Mount Zion Church Preservation Association is restoring the historic church, which was used as a hospital during the Civil War. When the restoration is completed in 2003, the church will house a visitors' center that interprets the church's archaeology, history and historic graveyard. The center will also examine Civil War history and the history of African Americans and Native Americans in the area.