Alabama
Buying Land in Choctaw County, Alabama
County seat: the town of Butler, in west Alabama near the Mississippi line. Choctaw County has no local zoning act for unincorporated land and sits squarely in Alabama's south-Alabama timber and paper-mill belt, alongside Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia, and Monroe Counties. Pennington, a small community here, has a genuine mid-20th-century paper-mill history worth knowing if you're looking at land nearby.
No zoning ordinance for unincorporated Choctaw County
Choctaw County has never received the kind of specific legislative grant that would let it zone unincorporated land -- the default across most of Alabama, and this pass found nothing to the contrary here. The county's Title 45 local-law chapter reserves its zoning-and-planning article with no operative provisions. That means land outside the town of Butler (the county seat), Gilbertown, Silas, Pennington, or the county's other small incorporated communities is not governed by any county zoning district or use table.
One naming note worth flagging directly: Choctaw County's seat is a town also named Butler -- entirely separate from Butler County, Alabama, a different county elsewhere in south-central Alabama with its own seat at Greenville. If you're researching either place, double-check which "Butler" a given source is actually describing before relying on it, since the shared name is a genuine, easy source of confusion. As with most of Alabama, confirm any zoning question directly with the Choctaw County Commission for your specific parcel rather than assuming based on this page alone.
South Alabama's timber belt, and a genuine paper-mill history in Pennington
Choctaw County sits within a well-documented cluster of south-Alabama counties -- Choctaw, Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia, and Monroe -- whose economies have run on timber, forestry, and wood-processing for generations, and continue to today. If you're evaluating Choctaw County acreage for a timber investment or a forestry-focused use, you're looking at land within an established, currently active regional industry with real processing and market infrastructure nearby, rather than a speculative or fading sector.
Within that broader picture, the small Choctaw County community of Pennington has its own specific, well-documented industrial history: the Allison Lumber Company drove real economic growth there starting in the 1950s, which in turn led to the establishment of the Marathon Southern Corporation paper mill on the same site -- a mill that later changed hands and names, operating at various points under the American Can Company and then the James River Corporation. This pass confirmed what an earlier version of this page could not: the site is genuinely still operating today, now as Georgia-Pacific's Naheola Mill, producing consumer paper products including Angel Soft bath tissue, Sparkle paper towels, and Dixie-brand bleached paperboard for cups and plates. Reported employment varies by source and year -- more than 900 in a 2019 Georgia-Pacific release, roughly 1,450 with an approximately $95 million annual payroll in a more recent company listing -- and the mill has continued actively hiring for maintenance, process-engineering, and material-handling roles. If you're evaluating land near Pennington, treat this as a real, currently active regional employer rather than a piece of settled history, though any specific current environmental or operational detail should still be confirmed directly with the mill or state regulators.
A real, public hunting resource inside Choctaw County: the Choctaw National Wildlife Refuge
Choctaw County is also home to the Choctaw National Wildlife Refuge itself -- a genuinely distinct fact worth stating plainly, since a shared name between a refuge, a town, or a county elsewhere in the state can easily cause confusion (a risk this project checks for explicitly). The refuge covers roughly 4,200 acres along the Tombigbee River just east of Gilbertown, established in 1964 on land acquired in connection with the Coffeeville Lock and Dam project, and it was created specifically to provide wood-duck brood habitat and a protected wintering area for waterfowl.
For a buyer specifically interested in hunting-adjacent land, the refuge has a real, decades-long public-hunting program: an archery deer hunt each fall to help manage a healthy deer herd in the refuge's wetland habitats, and an archery-only feral-hog hunt each March, timed to a period when most other hunting is closed. Duck hunting itself is not permitted on the refuge, despite its founding purpose around waterfowl habitat -- worth knowing directly if that's specifically what you had in mind. Refuge headquarters is at 509 Wildlife Road in Gilbertown; confirm current season dates and any permit requirements directly with refuge staff before planning around this resource.
Septic and water basics
Septic permitting in Choctaw County runs through the county health department under Alabama's single statewide ADPH standard (Chapter 420-3-1). Get a site evaluation and Permit to Install before any new system, and for a parcel with an existing system, confirm both the health department's permit file and that the installer held a current Alabama Onsite Wastewater Board license -- particularly relevant on any parcel near a legacy industrial site like Pennington, where environmental history is worth extra scrutiny.
Water use in Choctaw County follows Alabama's riparian default: a household well or typical timber-tract or small agricultural use needs no state permit. Only a use with the capacity to withdraw 100,000 gallons a day or more triggers ADECA's Office of Water Resources registration requirement -- a scale well beyond most rural land purchases here, though worth confirming directly if a property is marketed with any existing industrial or large-scale water infrastructure.
Who to Call Before Buying Land in Choctaw County
Confirm current zoning status directly with county offices; this research pass relied on search-indexed sources rather than a direct call to staff.
Planning & Zoning
Choctaw County Commission
Confirming current zoning status (none found in this research pass) for a specific unincorporated parcel.
Septic / Onsite Wastewater
Choctaw County Health Department
Septic Permit to Install applications and site evaluations.
Other
Choctaw National Wildlife Refuge (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)
Current hunting season dates, permits, and refuge boundary questions.
Recorder / Clerk / Land Records
Choctaw County Probate Office
Recorded deeds, plats, and title history for a specific parcel.
Want to know if this specific parcel actually works?
Tell us what you're looking at and we'll connect you with a local land specialist who can help you sanity-check it before you go further.
Get local guidanceSources
- Choctaw County, Alabama — Wikipedia (accessed 2026-09)
- Spotlight on Choctaw, Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia & Monroe Counties: Economic Engines — Business Alabama (accessed 2026-09)
- Pennington — Encyclopedia of Alabama (accessed 2026-09)
- Community — Town of Pennington, Alabama (accessed 2026-09)
- Naheola Mill's $120 Million Investment To Grow Bath Tissue Business — Georgia-Pacific (accessed 2026-09)
- Georgia Pacific Naheola Mill Jobs in Pennington, AL — Glassdoor (accessed 2026-09)
- Choctaw National Wildlife Refuge — U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (accessed 2026-09)
- Hunting at Choctaw National Wildlife Refuge — U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (accessed 2026-09)
Last reviewed 2026-09