Open-Air AT Ventures

Bone Valley ATV Park Uses Old Phosphate Mining Land to Make Way for Families, Fun

- TIM CRAIG 

ON 200 ACRES IN MULBERRY, there is a tract of land that is a testament to the feats that can be forged when the county and community collaborate. On quiet days, you can hear the wind rustling through trees and over clay dunes. On a busy day, you can hear ATVs zipping between the trees amid whoops of delight.

Bone Valley ATV Park opened in 2015 on former phosphate land bought from Mosaic, which mined it and then reclaimed it back to readiness for public use. The county-owned and run park in Mulberry sports 15 trails, hill climbs and free riding areas. The park even boasts an open play area and picnic areas. The trails play to the natural terrain left behind from the phosphate mining, adding exciting and challenging elements for riders.

It was about 95 percent complete when it opened, says Polk County Parks Manager Derek Harpe, but it was close enough to be a big draw.

Harpe and fellow Park Manager Mike Callender should know. They have been around since Bone Valley was just an idea more than 10 years prior to its opening. They were there for the ad hoc meetings and the special committees; there for the grant exemptions and the public-private cooperation that made the park happen; and they are still there overseeing an additional 300-acre expansion currently in the works.

The pair knew they heard a good idea when then-County Commissioner Randy Wilkinson floated it to the rest of the Commission: The county should do something for the large contingent of all-terrain riders who were finding accessible land shrinking every year.

“We knew there was a large ATV community in the county that was underserved,” says Harpe, a Polk County native and ATV rider himself. “It was getting harder to find a place to ride.”