Greenfield — Maybe a skateboard park doesn't mean much to you.

But to those who rode up and down the concrete bowls at The Turf back in the late 1970s through the mid-1990s, the park was everything: a shrine, a rite of passage, a place to hone skills like speed and balance, and yes, even a little courage.

So, late last weekend, when news began to circulate that the bowls, long buried beneath a building, had been unearthed by construction crews working by the W. Loomis Road exit off I-894, the information traveled through the local skateboarding community like a bolt of lightning.

This wasn't just some long-lost playground - it was an honest-to-goodness archaeological site for a lot of older skateboarders.

So, skateboarders being skateboarders - even those now in their 30s and 40s - they ignored the "No Trespassing" signs and decided to take matters into their own hands. They ventured out to the site, got together with shovels and literally dug up one of the old bowls Wednesday night as a WITI-TV (Channel 6) news crew looked on.

By dawn Thursday, kids were actually skateboarding on the site. But they soon discovered there was something more powerful than a skateboard.

Try heavy-duty construction equipment.

By midday, The Turf was once again buried, this time beneath broken blocks of concrete.

A portion of the land will be used for new exit and entry ramps onto the freeway. The state Department of Transportation will also use the site as a staging area for the reconstruction of the nearby Mitchell Interchange.

"While we understand this is a unique situation and memorable to a lot of folks, it's dangerous out there," said Emlynn Grisar, the DOT's southeast region's communications manager. "It's culturally interesting. We knew there was a skateboard park - we didn't know it was underground." Yet for those few days when the remnants of the old bowls could be seen, and those few hours when the skateboarders actually rode, The Turf was brought back to life.

"It was known around the world," said Peter DiAntonio, a photographer who spent a lot of his youth at The Turf. "It was incredible, an absolute gem. It changed my life. I just nagged my mom to take me there every single day."

The Turf was the creation of Jerry Steuernagel, a local businessman who was looking around for a new project after he sold off a printing operation.

Skateboarding was gaining in popularity in the 1970s. It was the era when skateboarders rode in what were then called pools, the forerunner of the more acrobatic and daring modern age.

Steuernagel said it cost $380,000 to build the facility, which included locker rooms and a pro shop.

"We had 10,000 members from all over the world," said Steuernagel. "Every kid was a member. That's how I sold it."

He said giving kids membership cards made them feel special and brought them back to the park again and again.

For a few years in the 1980s, the skateboard park gave way to a gentlemen's club called Bell E Buttons. Steuernagel later reopened the facility, but by the mid-1990s, skateboarders were performing high-flying tricks outdoors.

"It is eerie just walking down here," Steuernagel said, as he surveyed the old site. "All the things that went on here, all the memories . . . "

Ryan Bolze, who grew up skateboarding at the park, visited the site, along with his 4-year-old son Calvin.

"It was an organized free-for-all," Bolze said. "If you weren't on your game, you waited in line for 15 minutes. It was a home away from home."

Now, it's a construction site. The state Transportation Department is due to use the land through 2012. After that, it's anticipated that the City of Greenfield will purchase the land, with plans to redevelop the site as a business park.

"Right now, with the construction and the construction staging, we can't guarantee any preservation for that (skateboard park) foundation," said Robert Gutierrez, chief of the southeast freeways design team.

But Gutierrez said he has a keen interest in the old site. He purchased his first skateboard at The Turf.