Where I Hunt

I, like many hunters, do not hunt out of my back yard. Many of us often drive several hours to get to our little piece of paradise that we call our “Hunting Camp”. For me it is a two hour drive from my front door to the front door of our camp house in Tunnel Springs, AL. Like many other hunter, my camp is in a small rural community that is “out in the sticks”. Many of the small towns that we hunt in are often sparsely populated communities that look like places that time has forgotten. However, many of these communities were thriving, prosperous communities at one time. Tunnel Springs is one of these types of communities.

Tunnel Springs, AL is located in the northern part of Monroe County Alabama about 12 miles north of Monroeville, the county seat. Tunnel Springs began in the 1780's as a settlement along an old stagecoach route between Montgomery, AL and Baldwin County, AL. The settlement was first known as “Long Street”, and then later it was referred to as “East's Store”. The name changed once again to Kempville, for one of its early settlers. Around 1900 a new section of railroad was built by a construction company out of Nashville, TN. This section was too connect the Louisville and Nashville lines in Selma and Repton Alabama. While building this new section of the railroad, an 840 foot tunnel was dug through one of the many hills of Tunnel Springs. The construction crews started digging the tunnel from both ends at the same time. When the crews met in the middle, they were only about 1/2” off, from each other. This was a fairly amazing feat of construction in those early days of the 20th century.

After digging the tunnel, an underground spring flowed out of the side of the tunnel, and before long the town had taken on a new name. It wasn't long before there was a Post office which took on the name Tunnel Springs. The town prospered for 60+ years, with many businesses and a local news paper. In the 1960's the town began to dry up, and by 1970 the Tunnel Springs Post Office shut its doors. The town’s main business now, is timber and hunting. Tunnel Springs is still populated with many descendants of the original settlers. Names like Nettles and Falkenberry can still be found living in the area. The Philadelphia Baptist Church right off of Hwy 21, is one of the oldest remaining land marks of the area. The congregation for the church started worshiping together as early as the 1840's, while the church wasn't constructed until the 1870's. The railroad that was built through the tunnel, and ultimately gave the town it's name, is now a dead rail line, and the old tunnel is nothing more than a tourist attractions of sorts, and a home for bats. Many people still come to see the old tunnel...if they can find its hidden location in the woods of Hwy 21.

About 2 miles north of Tunnel Springs is another even smaller community known as Scotland. Scotland was founded around 1818 when 3 closely related families (Murphys, McCorveys, and McMillans), all children of immigrants from Kintyre, Scotland, moved down to Monroe County, AL from Robeson County, NC. Upon moving there, they formed the community now known as Scotland, which was mostly made up of a school and a Presbyterian church. Our hunting club, Scotland Ridge Hunting club, along with our two sister hunting clubs hunt the majority of the old Scotland community. There is very little left of this old community. The most prominent piece of history still standing there is the Old Scotland Presbyterian Church, which is registered as a state landmark. This old church was organized in 1823, and originally located at a place called the “Ridge”, for which I have no knowledge of. I hope I can fill this in on a later date. In 1835, the church was moved to its present location in Scotland, and was originally called the Flat Creek Presbyterian Church, named after a well known creek that flows through this area. It is not known exactly when the church changed its name to the Old Scotland Presbyterian Church, because the records of the church prior to 1860 were lost. The oldest documentation of the church is from 1860, which refereed to the church as the Old Scotland Presbyterian Church. Looking though the cemetery at the church you will find many members of Company H, 17th Alabama Infantry Regiment, also known as the Scotland Invincibles. There were a lot of men from this area who fought as part of the Scotland Invincibles during the Civil War. While there is not a lot of obvious signs of the original community still present, the land we hunt has many tell tale signs about the people who use to live in the old community. In our day to day hunting and scouting, we have found many old home sites, many that have nothing more left than crumbling old chimney. There are still remnants of old watering wells and rusty old barbed wire fencing that once kept livestock in their rightful place. There are still many very old pieces of farm machinery that lay in old fallen barns and that have even grown into trees, and became one with the forest around it.

After hunting this land for a little over 2 years now, I can understand why settlers picked this location for their homesteads. The land here is full of tall ridges and deep creek bottoms with creeks that flow year around. The woods are loaded with many different varieties of oaks, beech woods, poplars, and pines. In the spring the woods are full of blooms from mountain laurels, red buckeyes, and umbrella magnolias. The whole area is also abundant with all types of wildlife. I, like many of the club member of Scotland Ridge Hunting club, hope to be able to hunt this land for many, many years to come.

I hope you have enjoyed this history lesson on the small communities that I currently hunt. I hope others will share the history of their little piece of paradise that they call their “Hunting Club”.

By Denny Chambers

TalkHunting Pro Staff Director, Denny "Bugfixer" Chambers, of Summerdale, Alabama, was introduced to hunting at age six by his father. He began hunting small game and gradually moved up to whitetail deer and turkeys.

Denny has many years of experience hunting whitetail in the thick woods of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. He just recently started chasing the elusive Eastern Turkey that Alabama is known for, and he harvested his first gobbler during the 2009 spring season. Denny is currently working on becoming an accomplished turkey caller.

Denny is currently the camp leader for Scotland Ridge Hunting Club - East Camp, located in Tunnel Springs, Alabama. Denny along with other club members manage a 1340 acre hunting lease, maintaining 17 food plots for deer and 9 food plots for turkeys.

Outside of hunting, Denny is an Army veteran of Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Denny also has a Computer Engineering degree from Auburn University, and currently works as a software engineer. Denny has been married to his wife Samantha for over 10 years, and is a father of 4 children, three girls and boy, who all share in his love of hunting, fishing and the outdoors.