Events & Places of Interest
Union Springs’s rich rural and agricultural heritage features largely in the local attractions. The Chunnenuggee Garden, established in 1847, is one of the oldest public gardens in the United States and is the oldest in Alabama. The Chunnenuggee Fair is a modern continuation of a pre-Civil War festival that was originally hosted by the oldest horticultural society in the United States, the Chunnenuggee Garden Club. The National Register of Historic Places lists 47 homes and businesses in Union Springs that have been preserved as standing monuments to the town’s history. In addition to the historic Second Empire Bullock County Courthouse, built in 1872, the Courthouse Historic District has 25 other historic buildings, including antebellum homes and churches, a Carnegie Library, and the Red Door Theatre. Union Springs bills itself as the Field Trial Capitol of the World and since 1921 has welcomed hundreds of tourists every February at the National Amateur Free-for-All Championship of field trials. The Bird Dog Field Trial Monument, located in Union Springs’s Courthouse Historic District, is a life-sized bronze statue of a pointer that pays tribute to the 11 men inducted into the Bird Dog Field Trial Hall of Fame.