Our History | Buffalo Gap Retreat

Buffalo Gap Camp: A History

1954: Founding; Herman Rubenstein and Jerry Smith purchased 600 acres in Capon Bridge, West Virginia.

200 for a sleep away summer camp and 400 for the private Rubenstein farm. Herman, founded the camp in the years after World War II as a summer camp for Jewish children. The site sits in a remote gap between Sandy Ridge and Slane's Knob, about two hours from Washington, DC and Baltimore.

1955: Opening; The camp opened once its first structures were complete. It grew to include a lake with a beach, diving boards and slides, a lake house, a dining hall, a gymnasium, a theater,, mini golf, horse stables and riding, and outdoor tennis and basketball courts. Dormitory-style cabins slept up to 300 campers and staff. Herman, his wife Liz, and later their son Jon ran the camp alongside Jerry Smith for nearly 30 years with the help of countless local workers.1984: End of the camp era. The Rubensteins sold Buffalo Gap at auction, ending its run as a children's summer camp.

1984-1993; Folk dance years. Larry Weiner, Jean Bollinger, Mel and Phyllis Diamond purchase the camp after leasing it for many years hosting International Folk Dance Festivals held on Memorial and Labor Day weekends. Buffalo Gap Camp for the Cultural Arts goal was to establish a place for traditional music and dance programs; as well as hosting groups for other cultural activities. The camp began hosting a diverse schedule of music and dance festivals including many International styles, Swing Dance, Cajun and Zydeco, Contra and Square Dance, and bringing in talented teachers and musicians from near and far.

1987; Paul's Hall fire. Paul's Hall, once the Rec. Hall for the camp with its stage and wraparound porch overlooking the lake, burned down. Some accounts blame an electrical fire.

1991; Second fire.

A dryer fire destroyed the original office, dining hall, kitchen complex, and manager's residence.

The Pavilion was completed.

1993; Foreclosure and resale. After Buffalo Gap Camp for the Cultural Arts dissolved and the property went into foreclosure, the Rubensteins reacquired the camp and it was purchased by Jim Newburn, who operated it much as the former owners hosting many of the same groups till 2007.

2007-2016; Subdivision era. Developer B.K. Haynes purchased the 200-acre camp from Jim Newburn and he created the "Lodges of Buffalo Gap" subdivision. About 80 acres on Slane’s Knob became Phase II, leaving roughly 120 acres for 15 lots and common areas on the slopes of Sandy Ridge. Most of those who purchased lots were absentee or unable to keep up with mortgage payments. In 2010, the camp briefly reopened as a public campground with rental cabins, concerts, and festivals. By fall it had closed and returned to subdivision plans. Many buyers were foreclosed on as the subdivision failed by 2015.

In 2016, the bank foreclosed on Haynes himself.

2017: Revival; Buffalo Gap Camp was purchased by 5 investors on May 25, 2017 and transitioned to Buffalo Gap Retreat. The 5 partner investors had diverse backgrounds and varying dreams for the camp. They believed that Buffalo Gap was a blank canvas for which all of their individual and collective dreams could be manifested.

After the majority of the camp lay in foreclosure and abandonment for 2 years, it was a daunting task to breathe life back into more than a dozen structures. Those structures included eight (now 27) cottages, a commercial kitchen, a lake view dining hall, a 4,000 square foot open air Appalachian style covered pavilion, a lake house and an authentic Scandinavian wood fired sauna on the spring fed lake. Former owners had left the place in disarray... it took partners, volunteers, friends and family months to clean up, haul out, and bring the camp back to a state of caring that it now enjoys. Partners, volunteers and paid labor logged hundreds of hours into restoring electrical and plumbing issues camp wide, 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.

Today; Buffalo Gap Retreat offers a variety of services to the public:

27 Airbnb and direct booking cottage rentals
26 Campsites
Family and Pet friendly facility with a 3/4 acre Dog Park
A Weekend Cafe with beer and wine
Facilities rentals including our Cafe, Beach House, Open Air Pavilion

Weddings, reunions, private parties, and celebrations of all types large or small

Weekend Spa / Massage services
Festivals and Concerts
Yoga Retreats and Classes
A relaxing getaway with something for everyone.

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Reflections from former Camp owner Larry Weiner (1984 - 1993)

The first time "we" (a bunch of International Folk Dance friends from the DC area) used Buffalo gap was in 1969, and it was as a lessee during the shoulder season before and after the summer kids camp. Our first flyer that we sent out (way before the internet and email) can be found here along with some pictures inside of "Pauls Hall" (which burned down in 1987) and the old office/dining hall/kitchen complex/manager's residence (which burned down in 1991)

My understanding is that that Paul Shanholtz was the main person that built (with a lot of assistance of course) most of the buildings at Buffalo Gap. I believe Paul died in 1985 or 86 and is buried in the church graveyard on Sandy Ridge. I didn't know Paul very well.... but everything I knew about him was totally positive. Humble, competent, helpful... a very gentle human being. Paul's house was on Springfield Grade Rd. just downhill from the Mantz's house, and I believe his daughter Betty was married to Everett "Jake" Swisher. Jake, and his brother Grayson, also worked at the camp. Jake & Betty's 3 kids (Perry, Brian and Dwayne) were important workers, supporters and helpers at the camp.

At any rate, we (the 4 folk dance camp organizers) continued to lease the camp on Memorial Day Weekend and Labor Day weekend from 1969-1984. As those years went by it seemed clear to us that our program was growing in size, but that the Herman's summer camping business was in decline, and the camp was beginning to shows signs of some neglect. Finally Herman decided to sell the camp at auction in 1984, and the folk dance committee of 4 decided to put in a bid.... and it was a successful bid.

We formed a small "corporation" (DBW inc - 4 people), which was the corporate general partner for a limited partnership "Buffalo Gap Camp for the Cultural Arts (BGCCA)" that ended up having 25 or so limited partners from various parts or the country. The first year we ran the operations at Buffalo Gap was in 1985. The fundamental idea behind BGCCA was to lease the facility for weekends or weeks to folks that wanted to have a place for traditional music and dance programs; as well as to groups for other cultural activities.

Unfortunately the camp experienced 2 really tragic fires (one in 1987 that destroyed Paul's hall & another in 1991 that destroyed the office/dining room/kitchen/camp manager's residence) and that put a really difficult emotional and financial burden on the General Partner and Camp Manager. I won't go into the details of what happened, but I left the General Partnership in around 1994-5 because of irreconcilable differences between myself and the others in DBW, Inc. That was the end of my formal relationship with the camp.

The camp continued on for another 3 or 4 years until it was again sold at auction and Jim Newburn (from Columbia MD) bought it. Jim ran the camp for a number of years until he sold it to B.K. Haines.

Margaret Loomis (my wife).... was the Camp Manager 1985-1991.

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1954: Founding; Herman Rubenstein and Jerry Smith purchased 600 acres in Capon Bridge, West Virginia. 200 for a sleep away summer camp and 400 for the private Rubenstein farm. Herman, founded the camp in the years after World War II as a summer camp for Jewish children. The site sits in a remote gap between Sandy Ridge and Slane's Knob, about two hours from Washington, DC and Baltimore. 1955: Opening; The camp opened once its first structures were complete. It grew to include a lake with a beach, diving boards and slides, a lake house, a dining hall, a gymnasium, a theater,, mini golf, horse stables and riding, and outdoor tennis and basketball courts. Dormitory-style cabins slept up to 300 campers and staff. Herman, his wife Liz, and later their son Jon ran the camp alongside Jerry Smith for nearly 30 years with the help of countless local workers.1984: End of the camp era. The Rubensteins sold Buffalo Gap at auction, ending its run as a children's summer camp.