"Nature was already starting to reclaim the once manicured golf course," Jim Carpenter said at the May unveiling of the preserve that now carries his family's name. "Me and Nancy said that place has to be preserved."
Holliday Farms is built around golf that is still very much in play: a Pete Dye-designed championship 18 and a nine-hole executive course. About 6.4 road miles away, by Google Maps' estimate from The Club at Holliday Farms, sits what became of a course that stopped being played. Wolf Run Golf Club opened in 1989. Dr. Jack Leer founded it and Steve Smyers designed it, and it closed in 2017. Today it is the 215-acre Carpenter Nature Preserve at 601 S. 900 E., along Eagle Creek. The Town of Zionsville officially opened it to the public on June 22, 2026.
The preserve's first fall calendar has a clear pattern. Golf courses close at dusk, and so does the creek trail that starts at Holliday Farms. Most of the preserve's fall programs on the parks calendar start in late afternoon or evening.
Eagle Creek, From the Red Bridge Upstream
The closest public stretch of Eagle Creek to Holliday Farms is right at the neighborhood's edge. In August 2025, the town reopened the Red Bridge over Eagle Creek, now fitted with a pedestrian railing, as part of the official opening of the Eagle Creek Trail Holliday Corridor. The corridor adds 0.7 miles of trail between Turkeyfoot Nature Park and Pleasant View Road, with views of the creek and farmland. You can get on from Ravinia, Holliday Farms or Pleasant View Road.
The trail has two firm limits. It is open dawn to dusk, and Parks Board minutes ask walkers to stay on the gravel because the land beside it is private. As a morning walk from home, the corridor works well. As an outing, it is short, and it ends when the light goes.
No trail links the corridor to Carpenter Nature Preserve, so getting there means a short drive. The preserve sits on the southwest side of the intersection of U.S. 421, also known as Michigan Road, and State Road 32. Once you're there, the space is very different. A former championship layout gives you room that a 0.7-mile corridor through private land can't.
What a Golf Course Becomes When the Mowing Stops
Phase one of the preserve includes:
- Two miles of trails, with both paved and rustic sections
- Two scenic overlooks facing Eagle Creek
- A wildlife blind, which the Zionsville Parks Foundation describes as a stylistic observation blind
- An amphitheater and an outdoor classroom
- The Prairie Pavilion, which has restrooms
- A nature-scape playground with natural features like wood and water
Money and patience made the change possible. The Carpenters bought the property for $5.5 million and sold it to the town in 2023 for $4.52 million. Construction was funded by a $3 million Indiana Department of Natural Resources grant through the Next Level Conservation Trust, a $500,000 DNR Land and Water Conservation grant, and more than $800,000 raised by the Zionsville Parks Foundation. Current in Zionsville called the $3 million grant the largest single infusion of conservation funding in the department's history.
That funding also paid for 1,500 new trees and the restoration of several acres of prairie and wetland. Wildlife moved in before the public did. Before opening, an Inside Indiana Business visit recorded orioles, blue grosbeaks, vultures, great blue herons and a snapping turtle. IndyStar's May preview noted red-winged blackbirds. Jim Carpenter told the crowd at the May 21 private unveiling that rare and endangered bats would use the preserve in summer, and that "you might see a blue bird or you might hear a meadowlark." At that event, some guests walked the paved path with the Merlin Bird ID app, which identifies birds by their calls.
The ground is still changing. Phase two remains a plan: removing non-native species, restoring up to 10,000 linear feet of Eagle Creek and its tributaries, and adding wetland boardwalks and more trail. What you can visit this fall is the first version of the preserve.
The Fall Calendar Runs Late
Wildlife that comes out at dusk can't be seen on a dawn-to-dusk trail, so the parks department built most of the season around the evening. Here is every fall program at the preserve currently listed on the town's registration site and calendar:
| Date | Program | Time | Ages | Fee, resident / nonresident |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thu., Oct. 8 | Campfire Concert Series: Mr Daniel and Friends | 6–8 p.m. | All | Free, registration required |
| Sat., Oct. 10 | Owl Pellet Dissection | 2–3 p.m. | 6–12 | $7 / $9 |
| Fri., Oct. 16 | Night Hike | 7–8 p.m. | 5+ | $5 / $7 |
| Sat., Nov. 7 | November Fall Birding | 9–10 a.m. | 12+ | $5 / $7 |
| Fri., Nov. 13 | Owl Prowl | 5:30–6:30 p.m. | 6+ | $5 / $7 |
| Sat., Nov. 21 | Fall Campfire | 5–6:30 p.m. | 3+ | $5 / $7 |
Four of the six programs start at 5 p.m. or later. The Oct. 8 concert is held in the amphitheater and costs nothing, but everyone attending has to register. The Nov. 21 Fall Campfire is a sunset walk followed by marshmallow roasting. Daylight saving time ends before both November evening programs, so the Owl Prowl and the Fall Campfire will start in the dark or close to it.
The two daytime programs fit the same theme. The Oct. 10 Owl Pellet Dissection lets children ages 6 to 12 study what owls leave behind, a few days before the Night Hike. The Nov. 7 birding walk comes six days before the Owl Prowl. Booked together, the pairs work like a short course on what lives on the old fairways after dark.
The Breakfast at The Club
One date on the fall calendar happens inside Holliday Farms itself. The Zionsville Parks Foundation, which raised more than $800,000 toward the preserve, holds its third annual Parks & Pastries fundraising breakfast at The Club at Holliday Farms on Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. It is a fundraiser and not a preserve program. Phase two still has to be paid for, and this is the event where the group that funded phase one raises money.
Before You Drive Over
The materials published so far don't list the preserve's daily hours, parking capacity or whether dogs are allowed. The town's park rules say each park posts its own hours. Those rules also ban hunting, trapping or harming wildlife and ban removing or damaging plants, which matters on land that is still being replanted. Check the town's Carpenter Nature Preserve page before your first visit, especially if you plan to bring a dog. Register for evening programs early through the town's recreation portal, which handles sign-ups for these programs.
The Night Hike on Oct. 16 runs from 7 to 8 p.m., the hour when the dawn-to-dusk Holliday Corridor closes for the day.
Knowing how the land around Eagle Creek is used, from the fairways at Holliday Farms to the restored prairie at Carpenter, is part of how Jennil Salazar Private Client Group advises families in Zionsville. If you'd like to talk through what Holliday Farms offers beyond its gates, Book a Consultation.
