Big Spring Park centers on the underground karst spring that drew John Hunt to settle near the site in 1805 and long supplied Huntsville’s water. The city’s largest limestone spring also supported trade through the Fearn Canal, which linked downtown to the Tennessee River from the 1820s until railroads made it obsolete. Beginning in 1898, improvements under Col. Hiram M. Chittenden transformed the spring basin and canal into a civic park. Expanded in 1968 and 2005, the park became a major public gathering place, known for international gifts including Japanese cherry trees and a red bridge, and it remains central to Huntsville’s civic life.