Red Spot darter and Eastern box turtle, Oak Mountain State Park.
Welcome to the Oak Mountain Interpretive Center, a center for environmental education, ecological research and family recreation.
The Interpretive Center is located in Oak Mountain State Park, the largest park in the state of Alabama. The Center is the product of a collaboration between Samford University, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Alabama Wildlife Center and the Friends of Oak Mountain.
The mission of the Oak Mountain Interpretive Center is to promote appreciation for Oak Mountain State Park as a natural habitat and to provide a hands-on interactive educational experience that enables children and adults to learn about Alabama's biodiversity, students and teachers to research its wonders, and all visitors to understand the importance of environmental stewardship.
Samford has developed academic courses and community education classes for adults that will begin this spring. These courses range from academic credit courses in Biology to special interest classes such as Alabama Birding. Click on Educational Programs to see all that is happening at the Interpretive Center complex.
Samford is pleased to work with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources in the development and renovation of the Oak Mountain State Park Interpretive Center. When renovation is complete, the Interpretive Center will have:
- A 45 seat auditorium that will be used for orientations of the visitors to the park and for community group presentations and meetings.
- 2500 sq ft of interactive exhibits illustrating the unique ecology, geology and natural history of Alabama
- A teaching laboratory that will accommodate 20 students and house field research equipment, microscopes and GPS/GIS mapping capabilities
- 9,000 acres of forest as an outdoor classroom that students and visitors to the interpretive center are directed for a personal experience with Alabama nature.
In the Interpretive Center, park visitors can plan their hikes and family outings, review the types of wildlife they likely will encounter and understand the ecology of the forest they are about to explore.
