FAR WEST TEXAS — Heading to West Texas every summer for Paisano General Encampment is a Sabbath, a time of rest, for longtime attendee Kathy Robinson Hillman. For over 100 years, thousands of people from near and far have come to the Big Bend for Paisano Encampment and the Bloys Campmeeting, and together have broken bread, rested and held religious services. But for the first time in over 100 years, neither gathering will happen.
For Hillman, Paisano Encampment is “a time for me, a spiritual refreshment, a spiritual renewal, a spiritual connection and connection to friends and family.” Coming from Waco, “I can feel myself relax when I get to Fort Stockton, and when I start seeing those mountains when I make that turn to Alpine, all the tenseness goes out of my body,” she said.
Fifteen hundred others make the same pilgrimage to attend the annual gathering, a tradition that began in 1916 with, among others, Hillman’s great-grandparents Crawford and Mary Eliza Myers Mitchell, who homesteaded between Marfa and Alpine.
It was Hillman’s ancestors and their fellow camp attendees that also circled the chuck wagons in the 1920s and began feeding – with no charge – all who attended. The feeding of the 1,500 or so attendees over the course of a week was one of the challenges the board realized would be infeasible in the era of coronavirus.
Hundreds of attendees from across the country would gather elbow to elbow in the cafeteria-style line and sit down for communal meals. “There’s no way, with the family we are, that we could social distance,” said Bill Collins, president of Paisano Baptist Assembly.
Collins said that when the executive committee convened to determine if a yearly gathering would be possible for the last week of July, their first concern was the safety and well-being of their attendees, but “the second thing, which I think is more important, is we want to neighbor well and want to take care of our neighbors that live out there.”
That included not buying up huge quantities of food from local grocery stores. While in normal circumstances, that’s no problem, the executive committee pointed to “supply chain issues and shortages” as one of the reasons they decided to cancel the annual Paisano General Encampment gathering for the first time since 1916.
“We wanted to take care of the Trans-Pecos tri-county area out there. First of all the virus, second of all the shortages of resources and food. It made no sense to bring 1,500 people from all over the country into there and possibly damage our good name.”
In their cancellation announcement, the group also pointed to challenges related to “child-care protocols, kitchen staff availability, state-mandated guidelines, and a variety of other health and logistical concerns” that made canceling “the only safe and wise path forward for both participants and the local communities.”
“Please know that our hearts hurt with you as we all grieve the loss of much-needed spiritual refreshment, sweet fellowship, and Sabbath rest,” the statement said. Collins called the cancellation of Paisano “an easy decision but a difficult one all at the same time.”
Up the road, Bloys Campmeeting executives were facing some of the same challenges for their annual Davis Mountain gathering this summer. Their event has run unfettered since 1890, and the loss of the 2020 gathering is deeply felt in their community, which welcomes around 2,500 interdenominational worshippers these days.
Bloys President D.A. Harral says he’ll miss “just about everything” about the canceled meeting this year. But the decision boiled down to the risks they were not willing to take. Due to their multi-generational attendees, “There are a lot of people who fall in the high-risk category, and I think that was the main consideration there. Over half the attendees are high risk,” he said.
“It’s a big deal and a lot of the families were very disappointed to see it close this year, but the vast, vast majority have been very supportive of what we did,” Harral said.
For Hillman and her family, “We’re six generations in. It grieves me. I’ve missed a few encampments. My grandmother missed two, and one was my fault because I was born during the encampment,” said Hillman this week. While gatherings throughout the 104-year history have sometimes been small – like during World War I – at least a few families have always gathered together and had services.
“This will be the first year not to really have anything unless we do something virtually,” said Hillman, who also serves on the executive committee. Collins said the committee will be spending the next 12 months trying to figure out how to safely proceed with a 2021 gathering.
For Bloys, Harral said, the planners are already moving ahead. “We’re making improvements on the grounds, making plans and planning for 2021 to be the best meeting ever.”
In a new era where precautions and interpersonal distance reign, Hillman said, most of all, this is the year she needed her Paisano friends and West Texas respite the most.