By:
Submission
Buffalo Creek Vacations is a family owned & operated business. It was our father, Harold Clackett, who retired as a UPS truck driver on LI, New York who always had a dream of raising bison & building his retirement log home. They built their log home with the help of all of their 5 sons & their 1 daughter over the course of a few years & then it was time to move. Our dad, along w/ our mom, Harriet Clackett, made the move to the beautiful Smoky Mountains in 1994, the night before they left it was said that they were heard singing…”Nothing would be finer then to be in Carolina in the morning..”. Then soon the bison herd was formed & started expanding.
We all just fell in love with the area & all that it has to offer from hiking & water falls in the summer to the beautiful foliage in the fall, skiing in the winter & new baby bison being born in the springtime.
It wasn’t until 10 years later, in 2004 that the 40 acres behind our folks came up for sale & that 3 of us guys, Cheryl along w/ our spouses shared the vision of expanding our father’s bison ranch & start building cabins to rent & invite others to enjoy our little piece of heaven that God has blessed us with.
With all of our knowledge & experiences combined, we have built on the property 4 primary residences (with 1 being a castle!) & 4 vacation log cabins.
Opening Dates
Bison Overlook – July 1, 2007 Tatonka Lodge – February 10, 2008 Buffalo Bungalow – August 4, 2013 Timber Hollow – June 5, 2014 Bison Escape – June 13, 2015 Seaboard Coastline Caboose #0887 – April 1, 2016 BC Party Caboose – July 2017 Seaboard Coastline Caboose #0843 – December 20, 2017 BC Depot – Summer 2018 Hare Pin Inn – April 1, 2019 One of our father’s other “loves” was for trains, & 20 years later, in late December 2014, from when my folks 1st moved down to NC…Buffalo Creek purchased 2 cabooses that were relocated to the property & we renovated them and started renting them out as well by 2017. Since then we have purchased 3 more cabooses as well. One is currently our party caboose & the other 2 are sitting on the tracks waiting for their chance to be brought back to life!
Every cabin has been designed & built by mostly our family as well as a lot of the wood furniture in all our cabins has been handmade by the wood on the property! Even the covered wagon bed, (in Tatonka Lodge) that was custom built our father.
Buffalo Creek is proud to provide family & friends with work as well. All of our cleaning crews are related or good friends of the family.
God has blessed us beyond our wildest dreams. We hope you love the mountains like we have all come to love being transplants from a very flat NY!
Buffalo Creek Family Partnership
Cheryl & Jeff Hillis, Jacob & Holly Clackett Joshua & Maggie Clackett & Tim Clackett
**So Much to do at Buffalo Creek**
Once you have had your fill of relaxing in one of luxury cabins, you will find there is so much more to do – all you have to do is walk out the front door. Our property is small enough that it is easy to get around on foot, but also big enough for short hikes and great exploration.
Our Gift Shop
The Trains
The Playground
Day-Cation Pass
Mini Donkey Excursion
Mini Horse Rides
Feeding the Goats
See the Llamas
Game Room
Morning Bison Feeding
Paint Ball
Fishing
Was one of the most enjoyable places we have stayed at not in our RV! Beautiful setting (especially getting snow one night), great places to visit nearby, and so much room and fun! I will have to say that the "food ants" were not good; but, they were only on the island and easy to deal with. We will be back one day!!!
This cabin was absolutely beautiful!!! I loved the log cabin feel. It was also very clean! Buffalo Creek Vacations also left marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers for us to enjoy and make s'mores over the fire. We were really appreciate of that, since we forgot to bring some. We spent a lot of time playing pool and in the hot tub! I can't wait until we can stay there again.
We had an amazing long weekend at this cabin. Cabin is just down the road from the main farm, but we were delighted with the goats and mini donkeys that greeted us. The kids enjoyed getting to feed them and pet them daily. We travelled with 2 families with 4 kids total. Cabin was clean and the sheets were amazing. We even got snow on one of our days and enjoyed it while soaking in the very clean hot tub. We made it up to the farm and walked the trails up there as well as visiting the cute store and game room.
If you like the idea of living on a beautiful ranch with lots of access to animals without any of the responsibility to care for them, then this place is a MUST VISIT!
The pure joy seeing our kids jump up and down when they realized there would be donkeys and goats right outside our cabin was enough to melt your heart. BUT, it kept getting better...watching the Bison feeding, a turkey that seemed to want to give us a tour of the property (see picture), a property worker offering to let the kids help feed the donkeys, and the cabin and scenery were amazing!!!
The employees were great, extra firewood delivered quickly, everything clean. It was an awesome vacation. I can't wait to go back.
My family and I thoroughly enjoyed our weekend long stay at Bison Escape! We were promptly greeted by the mini donkeys and goats upon our arrival and my kids were thrilled to have the animals right outside our front door! The bison feeding was amazing and we learned so much about bison and the family that runs the ranch. Dennis was kind enough to leave feed on our cabin front porch so my kids could feed the donkeys and goats anytime they wanted. He also allowed them into the pen with the animals on the day we left.
The cabin was clean and had everything we needed. The hot tub was wonderful to relax in at the end of the day with the fire burning nearby. We had many games of pool and foosball throughout the weekend as well.
We had an amazing time and can’t wait to plan our next trip to Buffalo Creek!
