JEFFERSON COUNTY —Mary Owens has always felt a special connection to the farm her grandparents purchased in 1908 north of what is now 72nd Avenue and Ward Road.
Owens, 70, recalls spending a large part of her life at what is now a 50-acre historic property her three uncles sold to the city in 2002. With the last bits of remaining land , Owens said she fully supports the city’s plan to maintain the property in perpetuity as an active working farm and future Agricultural Heritage Center.
“My mom was born on the farm, and we’d go out there and make dinner every night, with big family dinners Sunday nights,” Owens said. “I just couldn’t stand the thought of houses going up there; the vision we had … was the city would keep it as a historic working farm and not turn it into a soccer field with parking lots.”
Per the agreement with her uncles, the city has been tentatively moving forward in preserving the property. Since the $2.7 million purchase in 2002, Arvada has leased the land to a local farmer, who has raised cattle and baled hay. Earlier this year, a pilot project began that allowed Jefferson County 4-H use of the property.
The property houses over a dozen structures to care for livestock, including barns, a red-brick grain silo and an on-site caretaker.
“My vision was for kids who live in a more urban area and can’t keep animals in their backyard, for them to have access to a working farm,” said Barbie Garnett, a Colorado State University Extension 4-H youth development agent.
Sarah Liepold, 12, lives in a subdivision south of the property and was selected as the first 4-H member to use the farm. On a recent Thursday afternoon, she showed off her 18-month-old steer, Fezzik, in a mud-filled holding pen.
“It’s been really scary going from having no pets to having a steer,” Liepold said.
Her brother, 10-year-old David Liepold, will soon be raising around four dozen chickens on the property.
“People pay a lot of money for farm-raised eggs,” he said.
Gordon Reusink, director of Arvada’s Parks, Golf and Hospitality department, said the city is updating its master park’s plan, and encourages residents to give feedback on what they want to see done at the property.
One thing the city will be doing is extending Ward Road from 72nd to 80th avenues through the farm once funds become available, something Reusink said will be done in a way to have the least amount of impact on the property as possible.
“It was identified as a priority acquisition in order to literally preserve it as a working farm,” Reusink said. “The buildings are just amazing in terms of interpreting that part of Arvada’s history, and people can drive by and see that at one time, a lot of Arvada looked like Moore Farm.”
Owens remembers riding horses through the area as a kid, when the entire area was open farm land. She also recalls every September loathing going back to school, because she would miss the corn harvest.
“It’s an oasis in the middle of the city,” Owens said. “You can be up there on the farm and see the city going on around you and feel like you’ve been taken back in time to a totally different world.”
Austin Briggs: 303-954-1729, abriggs@denverpost.com or twitter.com/abriggs
