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