Photo by Bill Green Ground was officially broken for the the Catoctin Creek Park, located between Middletown and Burkittsville, that will be built on a 139-acre parcel purchased by Frederick County in 1974. The property borders a large section of Catoctin Creek. The first phase of the project will provide a educational facility that will include a 6,100-square-foot nature center. Construction is to begin this month and be completed in the summer of 2010. Shown under the pavilion is Tom Wheatley, master plan committee member.

Paul Dial, Frederick County's parks and recreation director, cited Thoreau's musings about nature's simple beauty and its benefits as he welcomed visitors to what he hopes will become a natural and environmental showpiece.

The $2.9 million park will have a 6,100-square-foot nature center with the county government's first vegetative roof, a geothermal heating system, a passive solar design and other environmental innovations. The nature center is expected to open in the summer of 2010.

The park will have woods, trails and wildflowers.

"I think it's more and more important that we have these kinds of parks that connect people with our natural habitat," said Commissioners President Jan Gardner.

The county has owned the former farm for 35 years. The mostly wooded property is on Sumantown Road, with 5,200 feet along Catoctin Creek.

A local model airplane club used the park's open space for a time. In 2002, the county decided to make it a nature park. Last year, about 200 Boy Scouts began building trails.

County Commissioner David Gray compared the park to national parks, the focus of a PBS series being aired this week. "This is not a national park, but the same concepts apply," he said.

He praised the work of Alice Nemitsas, park naturalist at Fountain Rock Nature Center, the county's nature park near Walkersville . That park has been growing, step by step, for 30 years, he said.

"There aren't a lot of nature centers in rural counties," Commissioner Kai Hagen said. As Frederick County becomes less rural, the park will allow people to connect with its rural and agricultural roots.

"A lot of Frederick County kids live in neighborhoods that don't have a park that's any more than mowed grass with a ball field," Hagen said.

This park is home to active populations of such species as bluebirds, great blue herons, wild turkeys, muskrats, otters and foxes.

Trees include osage orange trees, which were planted and treasured by farmers for their durable wood, beech, oak, tulip poplar and a stand of hemlock that has yet to be attacked by the woolly adelgid.

"This was just a large swath of land that you had to jump a gate to get into," said Tom Wheatley, a member of the park's master plan committee. "There was a little concern that all these other areas were getting these wonderful parks, while the Brunswick -Jefferson area was getting nada."

The park's landscape demanded that it be treated differently from other county parks, Wheatley said. The 22-acre Fountain Rock was an inspiration, but park planners wanted Catoctin Creek Park to have its own flavor.

"This place is stunning," Wheatley said. "You come out here, your stress level is going to go way down."

Chip Price, of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Program Open Space, quoted John Muir in describing the program that helped pay for the park: "Everyone needs beauty as well as bread."

The funding came in part from real estate transfer taxes. The park will also benefit from the economic downturn, which has allowed the county to get a good price for construction. The price of labor and materials has fallen.

The county had planned to begin building last fall, but delayed when budget shortfalls became apparent. The project was then expected to cost $3.9 million, $1 million more than the current price.

"This is a culmination of may years and lots of meetings in buildings without windows," said Howard Looney, chairman of the county's parks and recreation commission.