Aug 31, 2022
By Marianne Mogon, Correspondent
Dana Peters-Moore is one of seven masters in Art Clay Metals in the country, owner/operator of The Bakery in Guffey, and runs a hundred head cattle ranch with her husband, Mike. Dana and The Bakery in Guffey are Park County Creative Alliance’s Artist/Gallery of the Month.
Peters-Moore grew up in rural Michigan, graduating high school in 1977. She attended Michigan State and Western Michigan Universities in pursuit of degrees in Art and Business. She was attracted to Guffey and decided to finally move there and make it home. She met her husband to be at the Freshwater Saloon also in Guffey about a year later, and two years later, the two were wed and now own Moore Lands and Livestock.
“Guffey is a very artistic and unique community,” she said. She opened The Bakery to offer food and space to display her art and others.
Stacy Kitzman and Peters-Moore have become close friends after both landing in Guffey. Kitzman is an integral part of the operation of The Bakery, and the two are more like sisters working together.
“We struck up a friendship and traveled the state together selling our jewelry at arts and crafts shows and had a ball and now we are happy to working together again,” Kitzman said. Others who contribute to the store include Dave Garretson, a retired executive who works part-time and invented pizza night with his own homemade recipe for crust and sauce. Ernie Cox is a regular and comes in every day and sometimes twice a day to converse.
Peters-Moore teaches how to create miniature works of art jewelry with art Ccay metals, a type of clay with fine metal particles in an organic binder that when fired, like pottery, burns away the binder and leaves fine silver, bronze or gold. The gallery in The Bakery displays some of her beautiful nature-inspired pieces.
The building is located at 336 Main Street in Guffey, and was originally a pole barn whose purpose was a repair shop for historic carriage restoration. It sat empty for years, but Dana had a vision for the place which began as “Strictly Guffey.” She wanted a place where the community of Guffey could display their artistic talents. Original paintings and sketches, fine jewelry, woodworking, candle making and handsewn mittens are just some of the offerings on the gallery side.
The Bakery is also now offering acrylic and watercolor classes on a monthly basis taught by Kitzman.
She is an artist that has been featured in several galleries in Canon City. Truly anyone can paint with clear step-by-step instructions and patient encouragement. If you’ve always wanted to try it, or you want to brush up on your skills, call 719-289-1012 to reserve a spot.
The Bakery contains edible works of art as well. Baking at 8500 feet in elevation has its challenges, but The Bakery has perfected the art of several different kinds of sourdough bread, pumpernickel (for their famous Reuben sandwich with homemade thousand island dressing), giant cinnamon rolls, cookies and pastries. Recently, Peters-Moore added hand-crafted chocolate bon bons, candy bars, fudge and caramel corn made by her sister Vera.
She also offers boxed assortments that are great for gift occasions or just sampling all of the varieties of
fruit and alcohol flavored bon bons such as bourbon, creme de menthe, tequila rose and amaretto.
Weekly specials include Friday night pizzas freshly baked to order. On Saturdays, they offer Italian
dinners including soup or salad, entree and dessert. Offerings change weekly and often include fresh
hand-made pasta.
You can find out what’s cooking on the Facebook group, Guffey Shares or email Dana at
dana@theguffeybakery.com to join her notifications of weekly specials. More information can be found
about The Bakery at parkcountycreativealliance.org/ under their Creative Directory – Business and
Galleries.
The Bakery is more than delicious food and artistic offerings; what really brings people back time after
time is the warm, homey feeling that permeates throughout the store. People come in as strangers and
leave as friends. This community gathering place is so warm and inviting that customers travel here each
summer as a destination place for their vacations. There is also a coffee mug club for freshly brewed
coffee as well as news of what’s going on in town. It’s kind of like the old TV show “Cheers” but instead
of “Norm,” they have Ernie.
Park County Creative Alliance is an organization uniting Park County through the arts while helping to
support and promote local artists from all genres such as writers, musicians, painters, photographers
and so much more. Learn more about PCCA by visiting the website parkcountycreativealliance.org/. Be
sure and pick up an Art in Adventuring Map found in various locations throughout Park County and a
little beyond. PCCA can also be found on Facebook.