Mount Trashmore turns 50, and Virginia Beach wants you to share memories

VIRGINIA BEACH — This year marks the 50th anniversary of the creation of Mount Trashmore, the country’s first landfill turned into a recreational area. Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation is collecting memories of the famed landmark.

To get the ball rolling, the department posted a few significant points of history for Mount Trashmore on its Facebook page, which was built atop 640,000 tons of garbage.

Remember the soap box derby races held on a paved ramp on the eastern slope of the main hill in the 1970s and early 1980s?

Maybe you were there when skateboarder Tony Hawk competed in the 1986 East Coast Assault vert competition.

Did you help form the living flag in honor of Gulf War troops in 1991?

Or maybe you fell for the the April Fool’s Day joke in 1992 when WNOR-FM 99 disc jockeys Henry “The Bull” Del Toro and Tommy Griffiths warned that the old landfill was about to explode.

Back in the day, snow on the ground meant sledding at Mount Trashmore. But in 1994, the city banned it on the north and west sides of the 65-foot-tall hill. In 2000, a full ban on sledding was implemented.

July Fourth celebrations, family picnics, flying a kite and fishing on Lake Windsor … The list goes on.

People can share their memories and photos in the comments section of the Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation Facebook page, send the department a direct message through Facebook, or use #TrashmoreVB50 when posting about Mount Trashmore on social media. The city plans to share the submitted photos and stories online through social media. But it is also commemorating the anniversary in other ways.

A 50th anniversary T-shirt is available for purchase online at www.bonfire.com/mount-trashmore-park-50th-anniversary/. Or to learn more about the park’s history, free guided history walking tours will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday and July 31. Registration is available online.

The 165-acre Mount Trashmore Park was built in 1973, which was originally conceived in the 1960s by Roland Dorer, a director in the state’s health department who lived in Virginia Beach. Each layer of garbage was compacted and covered with a layer of soil taken from adjacent borrow pits, which are now lakes.

Mount Trashmore is now a popular spot for workouts, playdates and dog walks and is home to numerous events including an annual summer carnival, the Filipino cultural festival Fil Fest, and a water lantern festival.

It’s now the city’s most visited park and competes with some of the tallest dunes in First Landing State Park for the distinction of the being the highest elevation in Virginia Beach.

Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com