San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Conroe’s ‘Bonnie and Clyde bridge’ to be restored as memorial to officers
A project is underway to move and restore a Conroe bridge made famous by Texas outlaw couple Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in the 1930s after it fell into the flooded San Jacinto River in January.
While local history of the couple hanging out under the bridge while visiting Barrow’s family has made it well known to residents, Montgomery County Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley said he plans to resurrect the metal truss bridge as a memorial to nine lawmen the couple killed during a string of robberies.
“I’m not going to pay tribute to Bonnie and Clyde,” Riley said. “I’m not going to make this a memorial for Bonnie and Clyde. I going to make this a memorial for the nine police officers they killed.”
Riley is partnering with the Texas Department of Transportation to remove the bridge from the river and transport it to his county barn where it will be restored. The bridge then will be moved and incorporated into the design of Riley’s planned almost
400-acre park in Woodforest, which will include sports fields, pickleball courts, a skate and dog park, hiking and equestrian trials, gardens and an amphitheater.
Johnson Development Co. donated the 391 acres to Montgomery County and Riley in December 2021.
During a two-year stretch of robberies across the central United States, Bonnie and Clyde killed 12 people, including deputy Eugene Capell Moore of Atoka, Okla.; deputy Malcolm Simmons Davis of
Dallas; detective Harry Leonard McGinnis and constable John Wesley “Wes” Harryman, both of Joplin, Mo.; town marshal Henry Dallas Humphrey of Alma, Ark.; prison guard major Joseph Crowson of Huntsville; patrolman Edward Bryan “Ed” Wheeler of Grapevine; patrolman Holloway Daniel “H.D.” Murphy of Grapevine; and constable William Calvin “Cal” Campbell of Commerce, Okla.
“I think it is going to be fantastic,” Riley said. “We will get this park going and find us a place we can set the bridge up as a pedestrian bridge and honor those (lawmen). I think it is well worth doing.”
The bridge is a PrattTruss bridge, meaning it has a saw-tooth pattern on the truss. The bridge was built by El Paso Bridge and Iron Co.
Montgomery County Historical Commission Chairman Larry Foerster found a record from Montgomery County and state bridge records that he said supports the theory that the bridge was built in 1910.
The bridge was one of seven built in the county by El Paso Bridge, according to contract payments made on March 8 and 30, 1910. Others included bridges at Caney Creek, Pelham, Weir Creek, Camp Creek, Four Mile Creek and Crystal Creek.
Riley did not have a timeline for the project and said TxDOT would bear most of the cost to remove the bridge.
“We may not be able to put every link back together, but it will be structurally sound enough we can put the sides and the top together,” Riley said. “It will look good, it will be cool sitting out there.”