In 1934, Colonel Robert Heffron Murray and his wife, Sue, bought 80 acres here and started Sunset Hill Farm. Within a year, they had 1000 chickens and sold eggs and broilers to local residents. In 1939, they produced ten gallons of milk a day and sold it for 30 cents a gallon. Over the years, the farm expanded to 238 acres. By 1970, Sunset Hill Farm produced about 400 gallons of milk a day. That year, the farm stopped selling milk directly to the public and instead sold it through a local distributor, and its dairy operations ended in 1978. Colonel Murray died in 1972 and left the farm to Purdue University to use as an agricultural experiment station, but Purdue opted not to take over the farm, so the Murray estate donated the land to Porter County. In 1936, the Murrays planted 36,000 red pines to stabilize the sandy hillside behind their home in what is now Murray Woods. Lloyd and Ethel Prosser managed Sunset Hill Farm from the mid-1950s until 1981, and a new dairy barn built in 1955 replaced the original barn, which had burned in 1954. The Murrays' home was torn down in 2009. Thousands of people now enjoy the farm each year, and as Sunset Hill Farm Park it promotes understanding and respect for Earth's natural resources, shares its farming tradition through education programs and summer camp, and offers five miles of trails, fitness programs, and youth cross country meets.