The BPS was established as a fossil-collecting organization in 1984 by James Lamb and Gorden Bell, who at that time were both employees of the Red Mountain Museum in Birmingham, Alabama. It is one of the most active organizations of its kind in the southeastern United States.

The original mission, according to James Lamb, was that the club be a venue to bring professionals and amateurs together. The very first field trip of the BPS was to collect trilobites near Anniston. There was a world-wide trilobite extinction event in the Cambrian, in which large forms died out and were survived by much smaller genera. The exact part of the Cambrian section that preserves this turnover is exposed in Rainbow City, and one of the world's experts on this boundary, Dr. Pete Palmer, had been trying to narrow in on the exact level for years. BPS collected at intervals along the exposure and sent representative examples to Palmer (through then club President, Scott Brande). So, even from the beginning, BPS has always had a very good relationship with professional scientists.

James is currently finishing his doctoral degree at North Carolina State University, and made these comments about the recent (2000-2001) efforts of BPS to make amphibian trackways found in Walker County, Alabama, available to researchers via internet photos, and about having each trackway documented at the Museum of Natural History in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, during Track Meet I:

"As for how Union Chapel compares to other activities, I think in terms of the size of the activity, and more importantly the fact that BPS engineered the activity itself, it has to be the biggest activity of its kind. It really is a model of how amateur clubs can work to the benefit of themselves as interested collectors and the museum/university community through preserving material and making it available for study. The use of the Internet to post results was something not generally available when the club first started, and it was always the one thing I never had a good answer to - i.e. documenting collections. In sum, it is exactly what I hoped the BPS would become.

...I have heard no end of praise for the role of the BPS in trackway collecting, etc. at the most recent Geological Society of America meeting here in Raleigh. I can't tell you how proud I was - the pride was mine but the hard work was all yours!"

Trips over the years have included monthly visits to sites that include private land, museum sites, roadcuts, creeks, badlands, islands, the ocean and lakes, with members assisting in surveying, collecting fossils, and basically, just having a great time! Many members have found items that are now in museum collections, where they are available to researchers around the world. Our monthly meetings feature talks by professionals on all aspects of paleontology and geology; sometimes, we even branch out into other areas of natural history. Members have given talks in the community and set up displays at schools, museums, botanical gardens, and special events. Donations of fossils to institutions and researchers are common.

Most of the current members are amateurs, but a few are professional geologists, paleontologists, and museum employees. Several members work in science departments at universities. There are medical doctors, high school science teachers, Birmingham Zoo employees, and others employed at environmental/conservation agencies. Several members are employed by the Geological Survey of Alabama. However, the majority of the membership is made of folks from all walks of life, who enjoy looking for and learning about fossils, experiencing Alabama natural history first hand, and spending time in the Alabama outdoors.

In 2002, virtually all of the BPS members involved in the Union Chapel Mine project decided to break from the old BPS and form the Alabama Paleontological Society. The idea was to have an organization more representative of the statewide membership of the group.