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It’s official. The state of Virginia now owns Natural Bridge State Park, which encompasses the 215-foot-tall limestone arch and accompanying 1,500 acres.
On Thursday, June 15, which just so happened to be the 86th anniversary of the establishment of the Virginia state park system, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation closed on the purchase of NBSP from the Trust for Public Land.
“We’re part of the rest of the family now,” said Jim Jones, manager of NBSP, Tuesday, referring to the system of 41 state parks that are fully owned and operated by the state of Virginia. NBSP was the first and only state park in Virginia to have been privately owned but operated as a state park.
Rockbridge County Administrator Spencer Suter notified the Board of Supervisors of the state acquisition last week and spoke Monday of the decade-long quest to reach this point at the regular meeting of the supervisors.
It all began with a “courtesy call” Suter received in 2013 from Jim Woltz of Woltz & Associates, a Roanoke-based real estate brokerage and auctioneering firm, informing him
NBSP of a pending subdivision and auction of the Natural Bridge property. The then-owner of Natural Bridge was planning to subdivide the land into 50 lots and sell them to the highest bidders.
That phone call set in motion a series of events that ultimately led to public ownership of Natural Bridge being achieved a decade later. In the months after Suter got that phone call, local and state officials scrambled to figure out a way to maintain public access to and protect from development Rockbridge County’s iconic geologic wonder, namesake and top tourist attraction, The Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund acquired the Natural Bridge property in 2014 with the intent of eventually transferring ownership to the state. This paved the way for the state to begin managing Natural Bridge as a state park in 2016. The Trust for Public Lands, a national nonprofit organization that works to protect public land, acquired the property from VCLF in 2022 and took over the remaining loan balance responsibilities.
In last year’s General Assembly session, Sen. Emmett Hanger successfully sponsored a budget amendment, with support from other local legislators, among them Sen. Creigh Deeds, Del. Terry Austin and Del. Ronnie Campbell, that appropriated $6.8 million in state funds to pay off the remaining debt on the Natural Bridge loan.
Now that the state owns it, NBSP will be eligible to receive state funding to make capital improvements. Though it won’t happen overnight, state officials can now proceed with building out the NBSP master plan. Such improvements as electrical, water, sewer, HVAC upgrades could be made in the next few years.
With the park under private ownership, capital improvements couldn’t be funded by the state, said Jones. “[We can now address] deferred maintenance items.”
One of the higher priorities, he said, will be to seek state funding for getting public water from the Rockbridge Public Service Authority’s Buck Hill water system to NBSP.
“We couldn’t be in a better place,” said Jones to the supervisors Monday. Retail sales at the NBSP’s gift shop are among the highest in the state park system. “We’re playing with the big boys,” he remarked.
Jones said he expects the state’s secretary of natural resources, in the not too distant future, will be making plans for a celebration of the state taking ownership of NBSP.
