Enjoying the Freedom of Country Living

"An independent streak runs through a lot of people here," said Nunnally, emphasizing that Broad Run Farms has a civic association with voluntary dues of $50 and a hands-off approach to personal property.

The flip side of having minimal restrictions is that there are the occasional front yards hidden under clusters of private and commercial vehicles. Association President Rob Gehrke, who keeps his boat in his driveway, noted that one resident has a helicopter in his front yard. "The only thing you can do is control what's on your property," he said.

"We're free spirits who want to be left alone," said Wayne Nielsen, a local scoutmaster.

There are no streetlights, sidewalks or curbs. The neighborhood was hooked up to public sewer in 1994, but residents still rely on well water. A recent proposal to extend the county's heritage trail through private property backing to the river was dropped because of the overwhelming opposition of Broad Run Farms residents. "There's an existing trail right across the river," Gehrke said.

The Broad Run Farms area has a history of fending off intruders. While camped with his troops at Miskel Farm, located within the community, Confederate John Singleton Mosby moved closer to the rank of major by fighting off a surprise Union attack on April 1, 1863.

A more recent intruder is trichloroethylene, found in some of the wells in the eastern part of the community. In 2005, residents and county supervisor Bruce Tulloch worked with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to secure, at state cost, filtration systems on properties affected. The suspected source of the contamination, a former landfill just east of the community, is for sale, said Gehrke, "but the liabilities that come with it far exceed any profits that could be made."

Today, there is a sense of calm in Broad Run Farms that seems missing in surrounding areas. Residents along Youngs Cliff Road enjoy some of the only privately owned riverfront lots north of Great Falls.

Psychologist Don Jewell saunters across his five-acre property to a couple of lawn chairs and a fire circle at the water's edge, where a shallow sliver of the Potomac separates the community from Selden Island, a turf farm.

There, in what he refers to as "one of the best bass fishing streams in the county," the steady trickle of water flowing over a line of rocks nurtures his muse as he writes his memoirs.

"It's like a cathedral back here," he said, gesturing towards the mature sycamore trees along the river bank.

Jewell moved to Broad Run Farms 43 years ago after leaving the Air Force with $600 to his name. "I was looking for waterfront property," he said.

His three sons grew up in an outdoorsy environment where they could build caves into the hillside, scour the property for arrowheads or camp out on the spur of the moment. Little has changed for today's young families.

Jewell's tranquil setting has been seriously disrupted only once, back in 1972 when Hurricane Agnes rolled through, sending flood waters rising. "We rode out of here on our horses," he said.

Some of the community's more senior residents have been spurred to outdoor involvement because of their setting. Brit Peterson, 87, used to cross-country ski throughout the community and began teaching the sport to the blind through Ski for Light when she was 60. Today she enjoys a peaceful scene of grazing horses from her kitchen window.

Muriel Spetzman and her husband were "outdoor people living and working in D.C." when they found Broad Run Farms in 1952. Now 90, Spetzman was Loudoun County's Outstanding Senior Volunteer in 2002 and a WETA Hometown Hero because of her work at nearby Claude Moore Park's Frogshackle Nature Center.

She recalls with enthusiasm her encounters with wildlife on her property overlooking Broad Run. Hesitation comes only when she tries to find the right word to describe her neighborhood to a visitor.

The words "splendid" and "exquisite," she said, are far too ordinary.