Huntsville State Park

About Huntsville State Park

Huntsville State Park is located in Huntsville, Alabama, about 30 miles east of Birmingham on the Alabama-Mississippi border. The park, in a forest dominated by pine, oak and other native plants, offers attractive camping and picnic areas. It was bought by a private owner in 1937 and opened in 1938. It was officially opened as a state park on 1 July 1939.

Raven Lake and the three large streams that flow into it offer good opportunities to catch cappie, perch, catfish and perch.

Occasionally, you can see alligators in the lake and trails create a natural environment for wildlife and birds to observe. White and black bear tails, coyotes and other wild animals are among the animals discovered at the Lake of Raven, as are white and black legs.

In the early 1930s, a proposal was made for a beautiful, beautifully wooded area in the heart of Huntsville. The Chamber of Commerce approached the Texas State Parks Board about the proposal, but the council told them the community must donate the property.

Twenty thousand dollars of bonds would have to be sold to Walker County to pay for the land needed, and in early 1936 Walker County voters voted by more than four to one to issue the bonds.

A plan was drawn up by local engineers and planners and submitted to the National Agency for Nature Conservation for approval. One location was selected, and the current location was chosen because its topography offered the best views of the lake for boating, fishing and swimming that would be created by the dam.

The area was merged into Prairie Branch by the Big Chiquapin and Little Chiquein Creek rivers and a dam was built at the junction. The site is merged by the Large and Small Chiquatines to form the Prairie Branch of Prairie Creek, the largest of its kind in the state.

One of the most important structures built by the CCC in Huntsville was the dam that created Lake Raven. The company was also responsible for the construction of several other dams in the region, such as the Big Chiquapin and Little Chiquein Creek dams. In October 1937, the first of these facilities was moved to Huntsville State Park to begin construction.

A natural disaster occurred early in the history of the park: on Sunday, 24 November 1940, the dam collapsed. Twelve inches of rain fell in two days and flooded the area, and on Monday, November 26, another dam burst its banks, this time at Little Chiquein Creek Dam.

Estimates of the damage were in the hundreds of thousands, although this sum was far from being reached. Director A.D. Folweiler proposed using the money from the sale of timber to rebuild the overflowing dam and complete the park. The park lay idle until a new agency was called for help: the Tennessee Department of Natural Resources.

Sen. Neveille Colson offered a $250,000 grant from the Tennessee Department of Natural Resources to rebuild the dam, and a bill to approve the measure was being worked out. In November of that year, a law was passed and signed authorizing the Texas State Parks Board to cut down $250,000 worth of wood in the park to be used for reconstruction.

Trees were so well selected that park visitors could hardly see where they were, and experienced foresters painted broad yellow stripes on the trees selected for harvest. Engineering studies later revealed that a properly confused spillway would have been successful if the bed of Lake Raven had been paved with mud at a certain distance from the dam to stop the leakage. None of this, for example, detracts from the beauty of the park's natural surroundings, or even its beauty as a resort.

The contract for the overflow channel was awarded to the civil engineering company Trinity Construction, which estimated a total cost of $1.5 million, or about $3 million in today's dollars.

In April 1956, the dam was demolished and rebuilt by the state inspection office, and the road was closed by the roadside maintenance department while Huntsville State Prison inmates awaited the operation to remove the undergrowth from the lake's banks. There was general consensus that the pond should have been built properly from the outset and that it should have been built as a public recreation area, not a private recreation area. The Texas Game and Fish Commission took on the challenge of doing just that, awarding a $1.5 million contract to build a new dam on the river.

A water biologist, Kenneth C. Jurgens, examined the site and ordered it removed or preserved.

The black bass, bream and cappie were killed and buried, then stored and a fertilization program initiated to ensure they thrive.

On Friday, May 18, 1956, Huntsville and the Walker County Chamber of Commerce inaugurated Huntsley State Park and opened it to the public. Attractions in Huntsville include Sam Houston State University, which is located in nearby Huntsville. About 50 miles away is Bebe Air Force Base, home to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The park is located in Walker County, Alabama, north of Huntsville, about 30 miles south of the city of Madison.