By Ronda Wertman
Tribune Correspondent
BURLINGTON - Living in his family home overlooking VanMyra Campground, Jeff Pyle doesn’t remember attending the annual camp meetings there, but he is working hard to preserve the memories that have been shared with him from its participants.
“The VanMyra Campground on Dry Run Road has been there a long time and is still there,” said Pyle, as he updated members of the Mineral County Genealogy Society on the park and its rich history.
A lot of preaching and singing and even a little romance were the tradition for 40 years, as area families gathered each August for the annual Camp Meeting.
For Pyle, his research has been a collection of memories from family and friends. Although he doesn’t remember it, he was at the last service. Pyle was 10 months old at the time in 1942.
Captain John Vandiver received the land off Dry Run Road as payment for serving in the Civil War. In the 1860s, the Vandiver Family owned the campground along with the parcel for the Baptist Church and an orchard.
It was in 1902 that Burlington’s Dr. Baker asked to increase the park to make a gathering place for a church group in August.
The Vandivers donated 28 acres to the park named for their daughter Myra Vandiver to the church for 99 years, but if they missed a year in having the camp meeting, it would be taken back.
With that, the camp meetings became a Burlington tradition. Starting in 1902, families would come the second and third weeks of August for the camp meeting.
Each year the event featured different preachers and in some ways it was like a large family reunion. It started with 12 cottages and grew to over 40 - each owned by a family and bearing a name such as Sweetwater, Fairview and Greenbrier, to name a few.
The cottages had four rooms divided by a sheet. The front part was the living room and the back was the bedrooms. People brought furniture from home and during the day would pull back the sheets so people could see into their cottage.
 There were many traditions with the event. Each family would bring potato chips and a baked ham and after the Sunday evening service there was a soup kettle and everyone brought something to add to the soup.
 “There was a lot of courting went on up there,” said Pyle, noting marriages and children that got their start at the annual event.
“There were more souls made there then there were saved up there.”
The credit for the camp meetings went to Dr. Baker. Pyle noted that it ended four years after his death.
“As the camp grew, the crowd grew,” Pyle added, saying that for several years the TM&P Railroad would carry passengers from Keyser to Burlington for the event at a cost of 25 cents.
Over the years, technology came to the park. Dr. Baker had a telephone line from Romney to Burlington and during camp meeting the line was run to his cottage at VanMyra. A Delco plant was purchased by the directors to provide light for the evening service. If the speaker would get too long winded, the kids would sneak out and turn the lights out.
A tabernacle was built around one of the trees in the park and each year as the tree grew, it was a tradition before camp meeting to cut the hole bigger and patch the roof.
The last camp meeting was held it 1942 and in 1944 the park was closed. The park has had a long history since then. In 1950 the tree in the middle of the tabernacle fell in a snow storm and in 1951 the state came and put everything in a pile and burned it.
 In 1955 it was deemed a state roadside park, and was available for local use until 1980, when the state came and took the tables and destroyed the outhouse.
It wasn’t until 1992 that the community was able to lease the property back to clean it up. In 1996, West Virginia Make it Shine provided $1,000 for repairs. New roofs were put on the pavilions and eight tables were built. This was the year a video was made of the memories shared from the camp meeting.
Nearby Lone Star Church also had a 100-year lease with the agreement if they missed a year in having a service it would go back to the state. The state took it over in the mid 1990s and it’s now used for storage.
Over the years, thieves have taken their toll on the tables; four were stolen in one night and another was stolen this year.
“I just want to keep it going,” said Pyle, noting that the park is still in use with picnics and reunions held there. Pyle works to keep up the maintenance, noting that volunteers are always welcome to assist with the mowing and painting at the park.
Pyle also shared papers of local history that he had received from estate sales in the area and passed around local pictures.
In business, the society still has its Cemetery II books to sell and they are also available at Main Street Books.
Kim Rolls reported on work at the mansion, saying that it will be on the Christmas tour this year. Efforts at the Stone House are also underway, with preparation for the annual Apple Harvest festivities.
The society will travel to Westernport for its next meeting at 6 p.m., Monday, Sept. 14. Members will tour the Westernport Heritage Society Museum and learn of their efforts.
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