During the same period, Greenville attorney Thomas Wyche conceived the idea of a Mountain Bridge Wilderness; and in 1973, he organized the Naturaland Trust to secure and protect the nearly of privately owned mountain lands between the Table Rock and Poinsett watersheds, including Jones Gap. In 1978, the state began to acquire properties, much of it with money granted from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. The park officially opened in January 1989. Smaller tracts in Jones Gap continued to be purchased by Naturaland Trust and The Nature Conservancy into the 21st century.