Gunston Hall was a 5,500-acre tobacco and corn plantation worked by slaves and indentured servants and owned by George Mason IV (1725-92), a fourth-generation Virginian who helped propel the state into the forefront of the movement for American independence alongside his neighbor George Washington. The house and grounds reflect the measured pace of an 18th century colonial plantation and the setting from which Mason, sometimes signing his writings as "a Virginia planter," discerned and expressed ideas that guided a new nation. Mason is best known for authoring the Virginia Constitution and the highly influential Virginia Declaration of Rights, which declared that all men are "by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights," proclaimed that all power is derived from the people, and served as a precursor of the Bill of Rights by protecting freedom of religion and freedom of the press. He later helped frame the U.S. Constitution but ultimately refused to sign it. Gunston Hall is a National Historic Landmark owned by the Commonwealth of Virginia and administered by a Board of Regents appointed from the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America. Pohick Bay Regional Park and Golf Course encompasses more than 1,000 acres devoted to outdoor recreation, including fishing, golf, Pirate's Cove Waterpark, walks through mature forest in search of the great-crested flycatcher, moonlight kayak tours of the bay, and camping.
