Thursday, July 3, 2008
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About Red Mountain Park
photo by Beth Maynor Young
Red Mountain Park currently exists as a 1,108-acre tract of land along Red Mountain. Located north of Lakeshore Drive, running 4.5 miles from an eastern boundary along Montevallo Road to a western endpoint near the Bessemer city limits, the property is currently owned by U.S. Steel Corp. In a gift of outstanding generosity, U.S. Steel has pledged to sell the land, valued at $16.5 million dollars, to the Black Warrior - Cahaba Rivers Land Trust at a discounted price of $7 million. Once the land is purchased, U.S. Steel has pledged an additional $1 million dollars for development of the park. The full monetary value of U.S. Steel's contribution, approximately $10.5 million, would make this one of the largest philanthropic conservation gifts in the history of the State of Alabama.
An initial feasibility study and conceptual master plan for the Park suggests the following possible features and community benefits:
What the Park actually becomes and includes is up to the people of Birmingham. A bird-watching sanctuary, an outdoor concert venue, a handicap-accessible nature trail, an off-road triathlon site, a history-filled field trip destination—these are all possiblities, and in a park this size, they could all coexist. Find out what part we can all play in securing this wonderful gift. 
photo by Beth Maynor Young
The property would also serve as a major link in a proposed 64-mile network of greenways, extending Mountain Brook's Jemison Trail and Homewood's Shades Creek Greenway all the way to Bessemer. The park boundary encloses several historic mining structures, former rail and roadways used in the heyday of the steel industry and abuts neighborhoods to the north founded by the mining community. The area's rich and diverse past stands as a common ground that may further the connection between the populations it connects. |
