A piece of Montgomery County history appears to have met its end following recent torrential rainfalls.
“The Bonnie and Clyde Bridge,” a landmark spanning the San Jacinto River along the old Highway 105 road from Conroe to Montgomery, has succumbed to flooding, effectively ending its chapter in the county’s history. The one-lane iron truss bridge was long-replaced by the FM 2854 bridge situated west of Conroe, but it had held firm, weathering storms and floods over the decades until now.
The historic structure got its name from the legendary criminal duo of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. More than a simple crossing point, it was reportedly under this bridge that Barrow and Parker used to meet their family members when they were in the Montgomery County area.
These historical assertions have been shared by Larry Foerster, the chair of the Montgomery County Historical Commission.
“For years, I have heard stories from children of Montgomery County sheriff’s deputies that their fathers knew that Clyde and Bonnie visited his family in Conroe. But they were never bothered by law officers because the gang had superior weaponry and a reputation for killing law officers. Besides, Clyde reportedly never caused any trouble as it would have caused a problem for his Conroe relatives,” Foerster recounted in an article he wrote back in 2019.
Such stories of the infamous outlaws have circulated within the Conroe community for years, generating intrigue and drawing curiosity to the Bonnie and Clyde Bridge. Aside from these accounts being confirmed by Clyde Barrow’s older cousin, Ellis “Dude” Barrow in a September 1974 edition of the Conroe Courier, Foerster offered additional insight into these tales.
Dude Barrow confirmed that he and Clyde had visited at the old bridge on at least two occasions, meeting at other places out of town several more times. Dude said that Clyde had visited a coffee shop on Main St. in Conroe and Everett’s Hardware Store around the corner from the coffee shop. The last time he saw Clyde was two weeks before he and Bonnie Parker were ambushed by police and killed.
For the 2019 article Foerster wrote, he spoke to then 87-year-old Carl Madeley, who lived west of Conroe. He also had personal experiences with Bonnie and Clyde.
“He recalls when these two outlaws visited Conroe in the spring of 1934 before they were gunned down in Louisiana in May 1934. Carl said his father, Dale Madeley, was a mechanic for the Hazel and Alley auto parts and repair shop on S. Main, just south of the Santa Fe Railroad tracks,” Foerster wrote.
The shop was three blocks south of the courthouse directly across the street from what was then the Santa Fe Railroad roundhouse.
“Carl recalls that his father came home one night with a $20 bill, which he proudly declared had been given to him by Clyde Barrow for repairing Clyde’s V-8 Ford,” said Foerster, noting that $20 was a large sum during the Great Depression.
Apparently Madeley was the only mechanic in Conroe who could fix the carburetor on Clyde’s vehicle. His shop had parts in stock and Madeley worked on the vehicle while Bonnie and Clyde enjoyed hamburgers nearby.
On May 23, 1934, Bonnie and Clyde’s violent string of crimes that had spanned five states and resulted in 13 murders and several robberies and burglaries met its own violent end when the two outlaws were ambushed by a posse led by Frank Hamer, a former Texas Ranger and former Grimes County sheriff.
Although the Bonnie and Clyde Bridge has crumbled into the annals of history, the legend of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow continues to prevail, painting a picture of a bygone era. Though it’s a loss for historical preservation, the stories will live on, shared from one generation to the next, ensuring that Bonnie and Clyde and their legendary Montgomery County meeting spot won’t soon be forgotten.
“In spite of good faith efforts to save the old frail bridge, sadly the cost of restoration was prohibitive. So the memory of the old bridge is figuratively, and literally, being washed away,” Foerster said.
[…] Original Article: https://bluebonnetnews.com/2024/01/25/the-collapse-of-the-bonnie-and-clyde-bridge-a-chapter-closes-o… […]
Carbonator?
Interesting, Conroe should at lease add a Historical Marker.
A Historical Marker would be nice, especially for any remaining family.
Sounds like a load of C R A P to me. Unless there is photo evidence of the dynamic duo actually being in Conroe or Montgomery during this time, this whole this is just another story to boost the nonexistent history of Conroe which is constantly being debated locally.
Oh, it’s true – there’s plenty of written evidence to support it (nobody carried a cell phone or even a camera in those days). But, it’s skeptics like you who just enjoy spreading doubt simply so you can wallow in your own non-importance in history.
I would love to see historical markers for all the spots visited by them. It is a part of history that is local and as tragic as it is, it’s fascinating
Such a sad thing that we would let a historic bridge/site fall into such disrepair that it could be easily washed away. Bonnie and Clyde were and still are a Legend. I met and talked to Clyde’s cousin Ellis Duke Barrow several times and he said that Bonnie and Clyde were basically nice people who took the wrong road when times were extremely hard during the Great Depression from 1929 until 1939. I think Ellis Barrow thought that the 2 motorcycle cops were actually shot and killed by another gang member and not actually Bonnie and Clyde.
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Thank you. A follow-up would be good on how the county will remove the bits from the riverbed as it is now an obstruction to catch kayakers and general debris.