Motorcycle Hill

Out in southwest Dallas there was a series of earthen mounds---or maybe just one large mound--that motorcyclists loved to ride over in the 60s. I believe it was off Loop 12. We called it "Motorcycle Hill." Anyone recall more details about what I'm speaking?

Drove by it Hundreds of times, was on West side of Loop 12 between Fort Worth Ave. and the DFW Turnpike..........It was a pretty good sized hill............Bill Strouse

Bill -

Wasn't that a large barren mound that looked like it had been piled there from excavation/construction? I recall in later years a heavy equipment garage nearby parked some of their trucks/graders/scrapers on top for advertising.

It appears from aerial views it was lost with the widening of Walton Walker.

There were also several runs up the ridge from the east side of Ledbetter / Loop 12 just south of Illinois where the Gospel Lighthouse now sits. One is still visible here

Bing Bird's Eye

In the 50s when I lived in Oak Cliff it seems like there was less vegatation on the hillside and the runs were rocky eroded ruts, long steep and difficult.

There were also numerous pits and mounds in the Trinity bottoms between Westmoreland and Sylvan.

My buddy and I were just a couple of kids on Allstate scooters so we mostly watched.

M C

We had our own "Motorcycle Hill" on Ferguson Road near Lakeland behind the Dairy Queen in the 1960's-70's. Only this hill was natural. There are apartments on that hill now.

M C, I do remember in later years the Heavy Const. Eqpt. having a garage and Trucks, etc. being parked there near Motorcycle Hill..........I also remember back in 1956 there was a large Hill on the East side of Loop 12 about half way between Illinois and Jefferson that we sometimes used as a Parking Spot....seems like there was a little dirt trail that you could drive your car off of Loop 12 and drive part way up the Hill...........Also remember this Hill being a good place to ride Motorcycles but not near the traffic that Motorcycle Hill had........also as long as we are talking about that area (you and some of the older DHS board folks will remember me talking about this some time ago) the area starting on the NW corner of Illinois and Loop 12 (the top of the hill overlooking Mtn. Creek Lake) was very wooded and secluded back in the mid 1940's (think there may be homes there now) but my Uncle Fred Erler (Dallas PD Detective) took me out there one day as they had found a very large Stolen Car Ring that operated from the middle of those woods......there were probably at least 100 stolen cars there, some of them taken apart......was pretty interesting to a 7 or 8 year old boy........Bill Strouse

I remeber it well!

Me and my friends use to skip school and take our little Hondas (S90's up to 350's) out there! Great fun - and amazing nobody got hurt!

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I remember driving up loop 12 in the mid 70s in an old VW with a carload of friends and someone pointed it out and said that looked like a hill that I couldn't climb in my bug. So the challenge was on. I quickly pulled over to the hill and got them out of the bug. I tried to make it a few times and only made it about half way up. The problem was coming back down,as I wasn't able to come down slow,so was coming down backwards at probably 20 or 30 mph, I almost rolled it a few times. I gave up and continued to our original destination. But I couldn't let it defeat me,so went back later and managed to make it to the top. But once I got over the top, their were too many motorcycles for me to be running the trails in the car, so I wrote it up as challenge complete. I think not too long after that it was leveled for road construction.

That's a great story! Wish I'd been there to see that!

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Motorcycle Hill between Illinois and Davis was also rattlesnake Hill.They held hunts there Still plenty of Rattlers up yhere.Behind an old K mart [junk Bazaar now and some cheap apts.