Methodist missionaries began visiting white settlers and Indian camps in the Chilliwack area in the late 1860s. One of the earliest Methodist Indian camp meetings in Chilliwack was held in 1869. Annual camp meetings, often lasting several days, were a means of reaching the local Indian populations as well as many other tribes. The enthusiasm of the first camp meeting in 1869 led to the erection of the first church in the Chilliwack Valley at Atchelitz, where the camp meetings were held. In the late 1800s a new church was built in Skowkale. The Chilliwack camp meetings continued annually for forty years.