The annual camp meeting was established in 1860 by a group of Methodist ministers and businessmen, including the future war hero and Illinois Governor John L. Beveridge, on the scenic land of Squire Socrates Rand along the Des Plaines River.

At the end of the US Civil War in 1865 approximately 25 equally scenic acres downstream (in what some deem to be the lowest geographical point in the midwest[2]) were purchased from Squire Rand with donations.

Chosen for the proximity to Chicago (about 16 miles), Squire Rand's properties bordered both a C&NW train line and a popular road that served travelers from the college town of Evanston, IL, home to Northwestern University then and now, making it an ideal location to bring midwesterners together to express their Christian faith in the serenity of the outdoors.

In 1903 the American Tabernacle was built based on the architectural principles of the Eiffel Tower, rendering it devoid of support pillars that might obstruct a view of the stage.

In the early decades of camp meeting, groups of Swedes, Germans, Norwegians and other ethnicities still spoke the mother tongue, creating a mild segregation which faded with time and assimilation.

Due to excessive urban build-up in the outlying swamp tributaries to the Des Plaines River, the camp is subject to more and more floods each year, rising to levels that put some two-story cottages underwater to the rafters.