While horse ownership has increased across the county in the last 15 years, private equestrian facilities in the area have been closing down, said Kirk Holley, manager of the Fairfax County Park Authority’s special projects branch. However, over that same period, Great Falls residents have worked with the Park Authority to save 52 acres of land at the corner of Georgetown Pike and Springvale Road and develop it into Turner Farm Park, where the ribbon was cut on a new, public horseback riding facility last Saturday, Nov. 7.

"Turner Farm is so cool," Holley told the 80 or so people who turned out for the grand opening. "You can climb a slide, jump a fence, ride a horse, look at Saturn, watch bluebirds."

The park also includes an observatory, a tot lot, a sundial garden and other features.

And, Holley said, it remains as a vestige of the days when dairy farms occupied much of Northern Virginia. When the riding facility, which includes an oversized, novice-level riding arena and a small pony pen, as well as new trails that can accommodate horse trailers, was designed years ago, Holley said, it was projected to cost close to $1 million. However, by doing the work in-house, the Park Authority completed the job for about $400,000, he said.

MONEY FROM the 2004 parks bond referendum, as well as a $10,000 contribution from the Friends of Turner Farm, funded the facility.

But Old Brogue owner Mike Kearney, who has been one of several people at the forefront of the effort to save and develop the park, recalled the initial frustration that the county did not have the money or manpower to create the park, and the many hours of volunteer work and fund raising that the community sunk into Turner Farm over the years. "Here we are 15 years later and everyone found a will and they found a way," he told the crowd, estimating that close to $175,000 had been raised over the years. And, Kearney said, the Park Authority’s Mastenbrook Volunteer Matching Fund Grant program had donated almost $40,000 in matching funds.

"What a difference it makes," Kearney said. "This could be another [housing] development."

Supervisor John Foust (D-Dranesville) noted that the park combined land from the original Turner Farm, Lexington Estates and the old Nike missile silo site, all "saved from development because of the interests and actions of you, the community." He recalled such creative fund raising efforts as hoedowns, brick sales and "cow bingo," in which winners were determined by where a cow "left its mark" on a grid marked off on a field. He thanked members of the Turner family for their "fortitude and stubbornness."

"It was a job well done by everyone and we will enjoy these facilities for years and years to come," Foust said.

Director of Park Operations Todd Johnson thanked the several park crews that worked on the equestrian facility, particularly the mobile crew, which he said is usually called in at the "ninth inning" but was utilized for this project as a "starter" that had to play through "extra innings and a few rain delays."

Bill Bouie, chair of the Park Authority Board, thanked the residents for continuing to support park bonds even in tough times, while such bonds were failing in other parts of the country.

Holley also noted that Kearney’s Great Falls Charitable Foundation had donated $30,000 for picnic shelters at the park, with the work to be contracted out shortly and completed in the spring. He said the Park Authority and the Analemma Society, which helps to support the observatory, were working together to make that facility operable from remote locations and to build a second sundial. "We’re working to put in place what you all conceived of 10 or even 15 years ago," he said.

FOLLOWING THE CEREMONY, Holley also said the 2008 parks bond referendum included $737,000 for a small roll-top building at the park that would house a meeting room and, one day, four new telescopes. Construction is to begin in 2012.