[citation needed] The woodland park contains closed mines and other artifacts of the city's industrial history.

In 2006, the Alabama Legislature designated the unfinished project as part of the Alabama state parks system and created the Red Mountain Greenway and Recreational Commission "to own, preserve, restore, maintain and promote the park."

In 2007, the legislature designated the commission a state agency with exclusive control over the park and responsibility for its planning and development.

The park's master plan received an award from the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2012.

[4] In 2015, the park briefly employed a herd of goats to help eliminate kudzu, Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense), and other invasive plants.