I-35: Highway to Hell

People have emotional relationships with the highways on which they have to drive often. Interstate 35 is one such road. Writer Sherry Claypool Kuehl once called I-35 "Satan's Parking Lot."

Let's look at it as a "highway to hell" in the wake of the Austin bombings and a quick reflection on its troublesome history.

This map by "Jenny Almond" was originally published on February 5, 2018, on Merovee's blog.  It showed predictive insights regarding the Austin bombings. For example, bomber Mark Anthony Conditt's suicide occurred in Round Rock, which is visible on her map.

Other items that Jenny Almond and Tom Mellett have noted should be added to the map include:

~ The Alamo, The Battle of the Alamo, San Antonio, February 23 – March 6, 1836;

~ The Ebola outbreak at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, Dallas, October 12, 2014;

~ The Smiley Face Balloon Crash, near Lockhart, 30 miles south of Austin, July 30, 2016.

Considering how finite the limits of Almond map are, it is intriguing to note how many of the Boyms' "Buildings of Disaster" are represented on her graph.

Texas School Book Depository, November 22, 1963.

University of Texas Tower, Austin, August 1, 1966.

Waco, Texas, April 19, 1993.

Oklahoma City Federal Building, April 19, 1995.

Texas A&M Bonfire Tower, November 8, 1999

Interstate 35 is closely tied to the controversy surrounding the so-called NAFTA superhighway. 

"The proposed Trans-Texas Corridor toll-road project included one proposal (TTC-35) to primarily parallel I-35 from the Mexican border up to the Oklahoma border." Source.

Interstate 29 and Interstate 35, described by the Ministry of Transportation for the province of Alberta as the "NAFTA superhighway."

Perhaps we need to watch I-35 a bit more closely.

For example, notice Ardmore, Oklahoma is on I-35. That's the childhood home of James Shelby Downard, which blogger Matt Forney wrote was "a town straight out of a David Lynch movie: wholesome on the outside but hiding deep dark secrets."

Between 1967 and 1972, "The Enema Bandit" (see Michael H. Kenyon) terrorized Norman, Oklahoma (which sits right on I-35).

The I-35 corridor in this part of the country may be "Satan's Parking Lot," after all.