ACTIVITIES

The Parks and Recreation Department maintains Bessemer's parks. Park hours are from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays thru Sundays, including holidays.

Abrams Park : Located on 10th Avenue North and 22nd Street in Bessemer, Abrams Park sits adjacent to Abrams Elementary School. The park is being renovated. It has a baseball field for youth games and a soccer field in the outfield. The concession stand is being renovated. The area also includes newly installed picnic tables.

Alex Bradford Park : Named for Bessemer native and popular jazz musician Alex Bradford. The lighted public park has benches and a fountain. It is located in downtown Bessemer at First Avenue North and 19th Street and currently serves as home to the Bessemer Farmers Market.

Carver Park : Carver Park, located at Second Avenue North and Seventh Street is a large park with a little league baseball field, walking track, picnic and family areas, kiddie equipment and city-owned fields.

Debardeleben Park : Described as an “oasis”, Debardeleben Park is named after the city's founder Henry Debardeleben. The park is nestled in the heart of downtown. It has picnic tables, a bandstand and a renovated Doughboy statue with the names of local World War I vets from Bessemer inscribed. The park also serves as site of the annual Bob Sykes Blues and BBQ Festival and summer concerts and community gatherings, such as the annual Christmas Tree Lighting.

Enoch Brown Park: Recently acquired by the city, the park is named for community legend Enoch Brown. The park is currently undergoing renovations.

McNeil Park : Located in the heart of Bessemer's Pipe Shop community, McNeil Park sits on the site of the former McNeil School. The park has a walking track, two new pavilions, a basketball court, children's playground and picnic tables. It is also the only site in the city to have an outdoor water feature/splash pad in which children can play and cool off in the hot Alabama summer heat. McNeil Park also serves as a rallying ground for the annual Valley Creek Cleanup and the annual Pipe Shop Day Celebration, both held each August.

Roosevelt Park : Located beside the city's new Recreation Center Hall Roosevelt Park is home to many features, including a walking trail, tennis courts, baseball and softball fields, an amphitheater, picnic pavilion and more. A tourist attraction is an old captured German artillery piece which points toward the roadway.

Southside Community Park : This park next to Hard School includes a baseball/softball field for youth sports, picnic tables, basketball goals and will soon feature a new walking track, named in honor of former councilwoman Sarah Belcher. Located at the end of Berkley Avenue and 29th Street South.

Specifically curated to cater to – and expand upon – your specific individual interests, we've done the legwork in creating experiences that showcase the very best Birmingham has to offer. Have a look around to see how you might make the most of the city that offers everything you're looking for. And more.

A great way to get the weekend started right is with a good old fashioned pizza for dinner. Handmade and cooked in a wood-fired brick over, every pizza at Slice is as fresh as it flavorful. Plus, there are pasta options, salads and a wide variety of local craft beers to round out the meal.

Head up Red Mountain to Vulcan Park and Museum to see a really big attraction. The world's largest cast iron statue, Vulcan is the mythical god of the forge, a nod to Birmingham's early beginnings in the iron and steel industry. An observation deck high up on the statue gives visitors a panoramic view of the surrounding area.

At Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark , visitors get a deep look into the iron and steel industry that was responsible for the birth of Birmingham. This 32-acre blast furnace plant produced iron for nearly 100 years and typifies the technology that gave rise to America's industrial dominance. Sloss is the only 20 th century blast furnace in the country being preserved and interpreted as a museum.

From Sloss Furnaces go over to the Civil Rights District , and begin your tour at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute . Richly detailed exhibits in the institute reveal slices of black and white life from the late 1800s to the present. A series of galleries tells the stories of daily life for African-Americans in Alabama and the nation, and how it differed dramatically from the lives white people of that era took for granted. (See In Their Footsteps for more itineraries in the Civil Rights District.)

Find outdoor fun at Red Mountain Park, where adventures are designed for children and adults of all ages. Try a flight over the treetops on the Red Ore Zip Tour. Take the challenge of swaying bridges, tight ropes, wall climbing and more in the Hugh Kaul Beanstalk Forest. Or grab hold at the 80-foot-tall Kaul Adventure Tower, with eight lanes for rappelling and traditional rock climbing with hand-holds and vine climbs. Then there's the Mega Zip which reaches speeds up to 30 mph.

Day #2

Start the day at the Birmingham Museum of Art . You'll find really astounding collections of Asian, African, European Decorative, and Modern and Contemporary Art that span more than 4,000 years.

Other interesting and entertaining attractions to tour include the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame , where visitors find tributes to major athletes with Alabama ties. Displays include memorabilia from Alabama Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, Olympic great Jesse Owens, “Hammering” Hank Aaron, baseball legend Willie Mays and boxing great Joe Louis.

Then go over to McWane Science Center where visitors find four floors on interactive, hands-o

n exhibits suitable for entertaining and educating all ages. Changing exhibitions and adventures such as ScienceQuest provide hours of fun and challenge. Their gift shop is so chocked full of really cool stuff that they named it “Really Cool Stuff.”

Find sports history at the Negro Southern League Museum . The collection dates back to the late 1890s with the industrial teams of steel workers and miners in the area. The museum also details the history of the Birmingham Black Barons, who played at the city's historic Rickwood Field, America's oldest ballpark.

Church and youth groups find day-long fun at Alabama Splash Adventure . If you're visiting in the late spring or summer, pack up the beach bag and sunscreen, and plan to spend the day here. The teens and tweens will want to ride the Rampage wooden roller coaster time and again. In the water park area, everyone loves Junior Bumper Boats and Neptune's Plunge.

For additional information regarding hotels or step-on guide services, call our Tourism Division at 800-458-8085 or 205-458-8000.