About

Buffalo Gap has a long history of being a place of community.

Established in the 1950s as a children’s summer camp it has hosted tens of thousands of campers over decades and generations. It remains an important place for many. Used as a basketball camp for a time it became a cultural arts camp in 1985 hosting traditional arts and dance camps of many different styles and genres. Folk, Contra, Swing, International, Cajun and Zydeco, Country, and many more. Many types of groups have hosted weekends over the years for retreats and workshops.

There are many that care deeply for Buffalo Gap.

The camp fell on difficult times and ultimately was sold to a developer. Subdivided and sold individually as a housing development, most thought it was lost to those who loved it. The development never worked as planned and owners left or defaulted and most of the lots fell into foreclosure. The site became vacant and mostly unattended.

In May of 2017 a group of investors purchased the core of the camp including the lake, dining hall, beach house, sauna, pavilion, and 5 cabin complexes to create Buffalo Gap Retreat. After the majority of the camp lay in foreclosure and abandoned for nearly 2 years, it was a daunting task to breathe life back into more than a dozen structures. ​Former owners had left the site in disarray... it took partners, volunteers, friends, and family months to clean up, haul out, and bring the site back to life. Partners, volunteers, and paid labor logged hundreds of hours into restoring electrical and plumbing issues, replacing doors, installing kitchens in all of our cottages, new locks, interior painting everywhere, furnishing by donation and purchase, mowing, weed trimming, junk removal, and all forms of camp wide beautification.

We hope to restore Buffalo Gap as a cultural arts retreat hosting Music, Dance, Yoga, Workshops, Festivals, and community based programs. Buffalo Gap Arts and Culture will operate independently of Buffalo Gap Retreat but will partner with them and other local groups to create funding and programming.

The possibilities are endless but we need your help. We will be partnering with local businesses and state agency’s to create arts and community based events. 

Contact us if you can offer support in any way. We are seeking people with experience in creating arts based programing and artists and performers in any traditional arts including but not limited to.

• Music & Dance (any and all styles and genres are welcome)

• Folklore & Storytelling

• Spinning & Weaving

• Printing & Painting

• Blacksmithing & Glassblowing

• Pottery

• Stone & Wood Carving

• Quilting

• Basketmaking