I grew up in Mesquite, and on a Saturday night with the wind right we could hear the cars going around the track. Another note on Devil's Bowl, my grandparents lived off of La Prada and John West back in the 70's, and when exploring the area on my bike one day I ran across the remnants of the original Devil's Bowl track in a field. Had no idea what it was until my dad informed me after being told about it.
With the current Devil's Bowl being between the gun range across the street, which is absolutely flood plain, and the airport, I'm guessing it will be an industrial park or something. But in today's world it wouldn't surprise me if they built a bunch of houses and then the tenants start complaining about the noisy airport next door or gun range across the street.
As for the tracks (of all kinds) disappearing at an alarming rate across the country, I have this to say:
Building and repairing anything is becoming a lost art in the modern world. Everything we buy is disposable, planned obsolescence. No shop classes in schools either. It's all by design. 70yrs ago the owner's manual of a car had instructions on how to set the valve lash, now they have warnings to not drink the contents of the battery. Self reliance is being cycled out of society in every way it possibly can be. They want us soft and dependent upon them, indebted for the entirety of our lives. As a result instant gratification rules the day. Nobody wants to toil in the garage at home on weekends building a hot rod anymore, you can just go out and buy one. The gratification of building and doing things yourself is lost on today's society.
Admittedly, I own a "modern muscle car". For what it is, I couldn't have built one that runs as well for twice the cost. But even then, mine will likely never see a mechanic shop while I own it. Not for something as simple as an oil change or as complicated as an engine rebuild or major component R&R. It's a great platform that I will maintain, upgrade, and service as needed while I have it. I've built plenty of them in my life, and still have a few projects I'm working on.
The reason for the rambling above is to point out that we are killing these tracks as a society. We're not raising kids to work on stuff, and as a result they have no interest in building and racing anything when they can turn on their gaming console, log in, and race virtually. I attended a road racing "track night" event this past week, and there were maybe 4 actual participants there under 30yrs old. Most of us were 40+. That's very telling. There's no game console that can simulate the feeling of making it thru a high speed sweeper at 80mph+ with all four tires in a controlled slide, or what the car feels like when you crest a hill braking into a blind corner and the weight shifts from the rear of the car to the front, and how that effects the handling. But are we communicating that to the youth of today? Are we getting them out there and showing them that life doesn't have to be a simulation? That they can actually do it? And in doing it the gratification is often immeasurable?
As hunters we all see the value of passing on the heritage to youth so a way of life is not lost forever. This situation is no different. And each are beneficial in more ways than can be calculated. Our inaction is feeding this decline. Society has re-prioritized our lives, only we can fix it. Will we though?
.
Originally Posted by psycho0819
I grew up in Mesquite, and on a Saturday night with the wind right we could hear the cars going around the track. Another note on Devil's Bowl, my grandparents lived off of La Prada and John West back in the 70's, and when exploring the area on my bike one day I ran across the remnants of the original Devil's Bowl track in a field. Had no idea what it was until my dad informed me after being told about it.
With the current Devil's Bowl being between the gun range across the street, which is absolutely flood plain, and the airport, I'm guessing it will be an industrial park or something. But in today's world it wouldn't surprise me if they built a bunch of houses and then the tenants start complaining about the noisy airport next door or gun range across the street.
As for the tracks (of all kinds) disappearing at an alarming rate across the country, I have this to say:
Building and repairing anything is becoming a lost art in the modern world. Everything we buy is disposable, planned obsolescence. No shop classes in schools either. It's all by design. 70yrs ago the owner's manual of a car had instructions on how to set the valve lash, now they have warnings to not drink the contents of the battery. Self reliance is being cycled out of society in every way it possibly can be. They want us soft and dependent upon them, indebted for the entirety of our lives. As a result instant gratification rules the day. Nobody wants to toil in the garage at home on weekends building a hot rod anymore, you can just go out and buy one. The gratification of building and doing things yourself is lost on today's society.
Admittedly, I own a "modern muscle car". For what it is, I couldn't have built one that runs as well for twice the cost. But even then, mine will likely never see a mechanic shop while I own it. Not for something as simple as an oil change or as complicated as an engine rebuild or major component R&R. It's a great platform that I will maintain, upgrade, and service as needed while I have it. I've built plenty of them in my life, and still have a few projects I'm working on.
The reason for the rambling above is to point out that we are killing these tracks as a society. We're not raising kids to work on stuff, and as a result they have no interest in building and racing anything when they can turn on their gaming console, log in, and race virtually. I attended a road racing "track night" event this past week, and there were maybe 4 actual participants there under 30yrs old. Most of us were 40+. That's very telling. There's no game console that can simulate the feeling of making it thru a high speed sweeper at 80mph+ with all four tires in a controlled slide, or what the car feels like when you crest a hill braking into a blind corner and the weight shifts from the rear of the car to the front, and how that effects the handling. But are we communicating that to the youth of today? Are we getting them out there and showing them that life doesn't have to be a simulation? That they can actually do it? And in doing it the gratification is often immeasurable?
As hunters we all see the value of passing on the heritage to youth so a way of life is not lost forever. This situation is no different. And each are beneficial in more ways than can be calculated. Our inaction is feeding this decline. Society has re-prioritized our lives, only we can fix it. Will we though?
.
Good post, psycho. Do you write for any publications? If not, you should. The stuff I read these days is just horrible.
What is going to be built down there? That’s gotta be in a flood plain.
Bush toll road will be coming through there. Devil's Bowl was in the middle of the preferred route IIRC. Assuming it got bought for that.
I think that's off the table. Getting a toll road thru there now will mean dozing a whole bunch of brand new homes, and however many more they can get built befor it would happen. Developers are scratching up every bit of ground they can along Lawson rd building homes as we type.
I knew that originally GB tollway was slated to go to hwy 80 at least, and possibly all the way to I20, but pretty sure Sunnyvale put the brakes on that one.
Tolerance is the virtue of a man without conviction.
The end of the world began the day it was created, and life is a sexually transmitted terminal disease.
Where exactly was original devils bowl ? Saw a guy lose his head back in early 90s. Bad night.
The original location was at La Prada and John West on the Mesquite/Dallas border. Referred to as being off of Buckner Blvd, but in reality the track itself was much closer to La Prada than Buckner.
Moved from there to the Lawson Rd location back in the late 60's or early 70's.
Last edited by psycho0819; 10/22/2309:21 PM.
Tolerance is the virtue of a man without conviction.
The end of the world began the day it was created, and life is a sexually transmitted terminal disease.
The original D Bowl was behind the area where Young Chevrolet is now. There used to be a small airport and the old drive in theater about where that restaurant is (was?) All that was farm fields and such back when I was little. All of the land on the south side of 30 was part of Buckner Orphanage property from the current UPS terminal to the Grove Hill cemetery and back to Forney road. Buckner orphanage was still farming the land where the big Coke place is when I was little. My folks said that there was different places where different crops were grown. Just about where Coke is was a 40 (?) acre peach orchard. Much of this where I'm sitting was rural farm land until it was annexed by the city of Dallas in the 50's (?)
![[Linked Image]](https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/pics/userpics/2023/10/full-1454-402784-devils_bowl.jpg)
