Native American use of the Turkey Run area dates back 12,000 years - indeed, Native Americans inhabited this area until the 1700's. Turkey Run provided fine hunting grounds for those earliest inhabitants and would eventually offer an excellent location for shellfish harvesting, fishing, and agriculture. Early owners of the land which now includes Turkey Run Park included Lighthorse Harry Lee, father of Robert E. Lee.
Around 1820 ownership passed to the Reid family who would farm parts of the area for the next 80 years. Their farmstead was actually on land which now houses the CIA Headquarters, adjacent to Turkey Run Park. The Reid family raised crops including corn and wheat which they would grind in a mill they built on the shore of the river just north of Turkey Run stream. This mill is no longer visible.
During the Civil War, Union troops occupied this area. The war had a profound impact on the forests lying from Turkey Run to the Capital. According to one young soldier stationed in this area, as far as the eye could see there was mud and "not a single tree standing." Forest were cut in order to ward off sneak attacks. Today, the eastern edge of Turkey Run Park borders Fort Marcy, one of 67 forts that circled Washington, D.C. during the war.
Early in this century the land was acquired by the Leiter family who built a large estate and also ran a dairy farm in a section of the upland forest. Today, only the crumbling foundation of the estate, along with some concrete fence posts (popular in the 1920's), remain. Dairy farming continued until around 1930.