Flat Creek Dulcimer Shop - History

The history of the Flat Creek Dulcimer Shop has perhaps an unusual beginning. Jeff Kamps, the owner of the shop, built his first mountain dulcimer in 1976. The reason for him building one is his wife, Debbie, wanted to play the guitar, but was struggling with it. Jeff found out that the dulcimer was quite a bit easier to play than a guitar, and without the money to buy one, he made her his first dulcimer. Debbie picked up on the instrument very fast, and when she tried to play the guitar afterwards, she found it was a lot easier. Jeff worked as an electrician during the day, and after building his first dulcimer, he realized that he enjoyed it very much. He built eighteen dulcimers in Illinois, where he lived, and moved to Arkansas in 1978 with the intentions of opening a mountain dulcimer shop. When he moved to Arkansas though, he did not get the shop started right off. He worked as an electrician again for nearly nine years, building his house on the side, and eventually getting the money to start his business. After these nine years, he bought a building in downtown Hardy, AR, and decided to renovate it to make a dulcimer shop. He finished this first renovation job, and opened the shop on April 1, 1988. He named it Flat Creek Dulcimer Shop after the creek which runs across his property. We have grown consistently through the years.  We have continued to renovate by turning our retail building into two stories, and purchasing another building for making instruments and wholesaling. We now not only make mountain dulcimers, but also hammered dulcimers, lap harps, and bowed psalteries. Although our shops have changed and our business has grown over the years, we still only have a small work staff of about six people, including the owner, who operate the retail shop as well as build the instruments. We have only made a few minor changes to our instruments over the years, trying to keep the qualities that have drawn customers to them, their sound and beauty.