After months of begging the Jackson County Board of Commissioners to block a shooting range in their community, residents of Tilley Creek took matters into their own hands this month and bought the property.

The purchase took the land off the market and away from the Smoke Rise Gun Club.

A Smoke Rise Gun Club representative said the club let its contract to buy the property expire on purpose because they didn’t think it was the right location after all.

The group of residents who bought the property want to restore the old home and outbuildings and turn the 194 acres into a historic working farm. They have already applied to the National Register of Historic places and were on the property last week fixing leaks in the roof of the old house. One of the buyers is Cindy Anthony, whose great-grandparents once owned and lived on the property. Anthony said the family was forced to sell the property when her great-grandmother died and a problem arose while settling the estate.

“Our purpose to protect and preserve the property,” Anthony said. “There’s just not that many examples of historic Appalachia that are still in one piece. To have the house and spring house, and hog pens and barns and outbuildings all there together, it shows that whole picture.”

Other buyers include Perry and Laurel Eury, Bob and Ruth Hurley, Louis Spagna and Deborah Hussey — all Tilley Creek residents.

“None of us have met before,” said Anthony. “Everybody wants the same thing. We have the same goal in common for the property and that’s conservation and preservation of the natural and historic value of the farm.”