FARMVILLE – The number of visits to High Bridge Trail State Park is expected to have nearly doubled during the past 12 months.

While state parks staff are still compiling December statistics across the commonwealth, State Parks Director, Joe Elton, told The Herald on Thursday “it looks like High Bridge Trail will top 76,000” for 2010.

Elton, who believes annual attendance at the park may one day hit the one million mark, added, “High Bridge had 42,850 in 2009, so its visitation is growing nicely…”

By comparison, long-established Twin Lakes State Park is expected to have attendance in excess of 99,000, having had 99,858 visits in 2009.

The opening of historic High Bridge, itself, is expected to be a powerful magnet for outdoor enthusiasts, as well as history and Civil War buffs.

Work on the decking to make the bridge safe for trail users “should begin in the first quarter of 2011,” Elton stated.

State-wide, Virginia's state parks will top eight million visits for the first time ever, he noted, with revenues surpassing $15 million-also for the first time.

The first six state parks were opened 75 years ago, as Virginia became the first state in the nation to open a state parks system.

Across the commonwealth, Virginia State Parks are planning 75th anniversary celebrations during 2011 to commemorate the parks system's birth in 1936 and its flourishing development during the past seven and a half decades.

In his 2010 year-end directors report, Elton states that 75 years ago the parks system was planned to be “an economic stimulator. They believed that if they built proper facilities and showcased Virginia's rich natural and cultural treasures people would travel to Virginia and their outdoor recreation and tourism spending would benefit state and local economies.”

Exceptional foresight.

“Pop the cork, clink the glasses and celebrate this most remarkable experiment in turning natural and cultural history into economic vitality,” Elton writes. “State Parks has proven to be one of the best investments Virginia has ever made.

The General Assembly has annually appropriated some $16.5 million for Virginia's state parks system for yearly operations that have “reaped a 10 to eleven-fold return on investment with economic impact in 2010 at about $185 million.

“You don't have to be Warren Buffet to know that a ten-fold return on investment,” Elton proclaims, “is a good thing.