Jemison Park

Jemison Park is a 54-acre linear park located in Mountain Brook, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. The park was designed for preservation as a green way and follows the stream banks of Watkins Brook and Shades Creek. It serves as a popular destination for walking, jogging, reading, bird watching, and picnicking.

The park's natural setting was part of the vision of Mountain Brook's founder, Robert Jemison, Jr. The City of Mountain Brook and community groups such as the Friends of Jemison Park have worked to maintain this vision. Jemison Park offers visitors a peaceful retreat from urban life, allowing them to relax and enjoy the sights and sounds of nature while strolling along Shades Creek.

The landscape of Jemison Park is the result of millions of years of geological activity. Shades Creek meanders through Shades Valley at an elevation of about 600 feet above mean sea level, bordered by Shades Mountain to the southeast and Red Mountain to the northwest. The park's flood plain, best seen along Mountain Brook Parkway between Cahaba Road and Overbrook Road, began its most recent growth phase just a few thousand years ago.

Jemison Park boasts a rich diversity of flora and fauna. The park's trees are a mixture of pines and hardwoods, primarily second growth due to the land being cleared before 1900 for farming and to fuel the McElwain iron furnace. Various plant species thrive in the park, including white buckeye, paw-paw, sweetshrub, and golden ragwort along Mountain Brook Parkway. The park is also home to at least ten fern species.

Wildlife in the park includes raccoons, which nest in holes in dead trees, and various bird species such as cardinals, towhees, Carolina wrens, and brown thrashers. The pileated woodpecker can also be found in the park. The moist ground provides a habitat for many species of amphibians.

The park features a one-mile concrete trail that connects with the Nature Trail and the Watkins Trace Trail. This trail system, part of Mountain Brook's larger 45-mile sidewalk and trail network, makes Jemison Park easily accessible to residents and visitors alike.