[4] A 70-mile bicycling and walking trail, it will connect Huntsville to Madison, Decatur, and Athens with an extended path along the Tennessee River.

[8][9] Isaac and Joseph Criner had previously reached the Big Spring and considered settlement, but due to the presence of bears and mosquitoes left to settle New Market instead.

His son sold the land to the city cheaply on the condition his heirs received their water for free and that the space around the Big Spring Basin would be open to the public.

In 1890, the second pumphouse was extended with a new wing and smokestack to meet the new water needs as the city expanded and the new Monte Sano Hotel opened.

[8] The original park site is situated in downtown Huntsville, starting from the west side of the courthouse square, and extending about two blocks southwest.

Col. Chittenden and his men tore down the pumphouse located at the basin of the Big Spring, put in a fountain, and lined the canal from 1898 to 1901.

In 2005, the park underwent additional expansion across Monroe Street to include a $284,000 fountain and a canal alongside the Von Braun Center.

[13] Today the park prominently features gifts given by other countries and foreign nationals to the city of Huntsville, including a 1903 light beacon (often referred to as "the lighthouse") and a 1929 fog bell given by Norway in 1973.

A final gift, restored to its proper place in 1995, was the marble lion that sits near the Big Spring Fountain.

Big Spring Park was one of the locations of a George Floyd protest that occurred on June 3, 2020, which was ended by Huntsville Police along with SWAT and Incident Response Team[17] using tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets.