The Buckhorn Mennonite Church traces its beginnings to 1930, when itinerant Mennonite ministers began holding services at the Buckhorn Schoolhouse in southeastern Hardy County. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, young adults from the Virginia Conference came to the West Virginia highlands to teach Summer Bible School, and the small congregation at Buckhorn grew through these summer programs, Sunday school, and revival meetings held in the schoolhouse.
A dedicated church building, raised by volunteer labor, was completed and dedicated in 1949. John and Katie Shank provided leadership during the congregation’s early years. The new building stood on Dove Hollow Road, adjoining the boundary of Lost River State Park.
When the three sister congregations of Buckhorn, Cullers Run, and Mt. Hermon merged in 1973 to form Mathias Mennonite Church, services at Buckhorn ended. The church building itself has had a second life: it was renovated as a vacation cabin and today operates as the Buckhorn AirBnB, welcoming visitors to the same hilltop where the congregation once gathered.
For visitors, this is one of several stops on the trail where a 19th- or 20th-century Mennonite meetinghouse has been preserved by adapting it to a new use rather than letting it fall into disrepair.