Fire is a familiar threat at historic Cypress Campground

Wade Spees
The Post and Courier

This file photo from October 10, 1997 shows Zonnie Blanton preparing Cypress Campground for its annual meeting, which has been going on since 1794.

The Summerville Journal-Scene

A newspaper clipping from The Summerville Journal-Scene from October 20th, 1975 of Cypress Campground.

RIDGEVILLE —

Tradition is at the heart of the Cypress Campground. Tradition just might have kept it from burning to the ground Tuesday morning.

A “tent” owner, on his way to work in the late night, did what the campground families have done for generations when they go by. He drove the circle of 53 wooden cabin tents to keep an eye on the remote, two-century-old site they call holy ground — the cabins, the open air tabernacle in the field at the center, the church whose heritage dates to the Colonial days of Methodist circuit rider Francis Asbury.

Because another tradition at Cypress and the other four Lowcountry campgrounds is darker and sinister — fire and vandalism.

That campground member’s emergency call roused 11 rural fire departments quickly enough that the fire — hot enough to melt the plastic hooks holding welcoming branches on the church door across the way, searing high enough to scorch pine trees taller than the steeple — was held to five ruined cabins and a damaged sixth.

Firefighters spent 2 to 2 1/2 hours putting out the blaze, the chief said. More than 20 pumper and tanker trucks responded. They didn't leave until around 7:30 a.m.

p>A Dorchester County Sheriff's investigator was helping the fire department look into the cause. Cummings said there was no obvious reason for the fire, except somebody setting it intentionally.

"Everything is suspicious about that because there's no power in that place," he said. "It isn't like it shorted out."

Affiliated with the Methodist Church, Cypress Campground is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

By daylight those cabins were no more than embers and chars — “a sickening mess,” in the words of more than one member. But the campground as a whole kept its unshakable sense of peace, its field full of wild yellow flowers.

“It’s not so much the cabins (burning). It’s the memories. It’s like a death. You’ve got old people coming out here you don’t know if they’ll make it the next time,” said Cypress Campground member Edna Hill.

Read more in tomorrow’s edition of The Post and Courier.

Noah Haglundcontributed to this report. Reach Bo Petersenat 745-5852 or bpetersen@postandcourier.com.