Written by Carl Sell

Purchased by the Federal Government in the 1930s, the large tract now known as Huntley Meadows Park was a super-secret tracking site for radio signals on the land, in the sea and in the air. In fact, the first confirmation of the Soviet Union’s space satellite, Sputnik, was recorded there shortly after it was launched in October 1957. Russia had announced the accomplishment, but authentication came from signals received at Huntley Meadows.

Other uses included an anti-aircraft artillery site during the Cold War and a test site for road construction by the Federal Highway Administration. The United States Coast Guard station on Telegraph Road is all that remains of the government uses on the site. The park itself encompasses more than 1,200 acres.

The site is bordered on the east by the community of Hybla Valley and at one time was adjacent to an airport that served the public, trained military pilots for World War II and served as a collection and distribution point for the U.S. Postal Service.  In addition, a half-mile dirt oval racetrack for "midget" cars operated from 1948 to 1958 on property nearby. Much of the center of the site was devoted to ground antenna that monitored activity overhead and in the North Atlantic.

The anti-aircraft site included four 90-millimeter guns designed to interrupt invading planes, if they were to appear. Other sites were in Lorton and on Franconia Road where Key Middle School is located today. The sites were operated by the Virginia National Guard and were commanded by Colonel James Young, who grew up on Beulah Road (now Beulah Street) and lived in Springfield.

A shell from one of the Franconia guns is on display at the Franconia Museum. It was part of several artifacts given to the Museum by Colonel Young before he passed away in 2019. The Fairfax County Park Authority also has a display depicting the early days of the site at the park headquarters located off Lockheed Boulevard.

The anti-aircraft gun sites were phased out in the 1960s with the development of the Nike missile, one of which was installed at the Key site temporarily before the operation was moved to Lorton and Pope’s Head Road in Fairfax. The U.S. missile deterrent system is now located underground in the Far West.

Advances in missile deterrent and communications systems made the activity on the site obsolete by early 1970. The government declared most of the site, except for the Coast Guard station, surplus. Local residents, who had been barred from using the site, at once began clamoring for access for hiking trails for nature walks, horse riding facilities, and motor bike courses. Much of the surrounding land was undeveloped and dotted with farms, especially in Franconia.

President Richard Nixon established the Legacy of Parks program in 1971that transferred vacant federal land to state and local governments and the frenzy began in earnest to acquire what was known as the Naval Research Laboratory site. A lease was signed with the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 1973 that allowed public access on 400 acres.

The Fairfax County Park Authority assumed the role of the lead agency in the quest to obtain ownership of the land. The transfer document was signed in December 1975 by President Gerald Ford. The deed was in the ownership of the Park Authority, a detail that would shortly become important.

County transportation plans called for a road connection from the Telegraph Road area to Route #1 at Hybla Valley and a citizen’s group was formed to support building of the road. Just as quickly, those who opposed the road organized and the fight was on. Finally, the road would disappear when everyone realized that the conditions of the transfer limited the use of the property for park purposes and the Park Authority actually was the benefactor of the transfer.

Early on, a small group of Park staff and citizen activists, Sell and the Lee District Supervisor Joseph Alexander, were at the forefront of the campaign to obtain the land. They recruited United States Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr. of Virginia to spearhead the effort on Capitol Hill, and the idea quickly gained acceptance.

Senator Byrd attended meetings at the park and walked the one available trail to the center observation area, held meetings in his Senate office and contacted appropriate government officials seeking support for the transfer. A native of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, the Senator liked to hike the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains and often drove himself to what would become Huntley Meadows for a visit with nature. He called it an “oasis” in suburbia!

Since Virginia has conditional zoning, the Amlongs agreed to preserve the house and recover its density as part of a townhouse community on the rest of the acreage. The Park Authority then bought the major house and its surroundings and did extensive improvements and rehabilitation on the site. Huntley is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.

In another early zoning action that benefitted the park, the County acquired portions of an “H” shaped property that effectively severed the entrance road from South Kings Highway. The owner donated enough of the property to allow access, accepting density credit to build on the remainder. Thus, the Deer Run townhouse community occupies the adjacent land on the east and the Park Authority controls the access road and acreage adjacent to Dogue Creek.

Later, with financial assistance from Ducks Unlimited, the Park Authority purchased 165 acres of adjacent wetland property, bringing the park’s total acreage to about 1,500. Ducks Unlimited is a national non-profit organization involved in the protection of wetlands for the benefit of waterfowl.

The first orders of business involving the large new park was the selection of a name and begin work on a master plan that would include a visitor’s center, trail network and parking for visitors. The Park Authority announced a “Name the Park” contest and hundreds of suggestions were received.

The winning name of Huntley Meadows was submitted by both Oscar C. Harlow and student Joe Fields.  Senator Byrd led a walk that included both Oscar and Joe and a large number of park enthusiasts to celebrate the official designation of Fairfax County’s largest park.

The issue of the extension of Lockheed Boulevard to Telegraph Road became a hot political issue in the late 1970s. Advocates for the road organized a petition drive during voting cycles. They soon were met by other citizens who demanded that the park be kept natural, and a road not be built. Fairfax County’s early transportation plans called for a road, as did an early version of the Comprehensive Plan, adopted in the early 1970s.

At first, the pro-road group kept the idea moving at the County level. The Park Authority offered scaled down versions of a road to minimize impact on the park. It took years for the realization that the terms of the Federal transfer existed only for park and recreational purposes and not for a road.  A large portion of the audience finally began listening to the choir and the road was eliminated from the comprehensive plan.

(As the author of this article, I take great pride in the fact of my early opposition to a road, as reported at the time the park was conveyed, and the fact that I was the member of the Planning Commission who made the successful motion to remove the road from the Comprehensive Plan.)