Tornado Snapshots — 1957
by Paula Bosse
April 2, 1957, Oak Cliffwards…
by Paula Bosse
A few photos of the infamous April 2, 1957 tornado which hit Dallas and was, at the time, the most photographed tornado in history. See more photos (and film footage) in the 2014 Flashback Dallas post “Tornado as Learning Tool — 1957.”
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Sources & Notes
All four photos were sold as one lot on eBay several years ago.
In addition to the post linked above, here are a few other tornado-related posts:
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Copyright © 2023 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
I watched this from the front porch of our apartment on Cedar Springs with my mother and younger sister. I was six years old, and my father was in downtown in the path of the tornado!
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I was 6 yrs old and remember that day. You just don’t forget
things like that.
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I was working as a draftsman at an Oil Tool Co. at the NW corner of Love Field. Rain storms had been forecast. We noticed that the clouds were very low and churning. The sky/clouds were a dark green tint. Someone at the back of the plant actually saw the tornado coming in our direction. The word got out quickly to get the heck out of there. The entrance to the parking lot was a graveled 2-way entrance. Everyone was running for their cars to leave the area. I was in the back seat of a 1949 Cadillac and could see what was coming. There were almost several car accidents with all the cars trying to leave the parking lot at once. We turned left and drove down a hill to Shorecrest Dr. then right along that street next to Bachman Lake. I remember seeing the tornado as it seemed to hit the lake and turn white. It lost its power then. When we drove back to the plant, we weren’t sure what we would find. It turned out the tornado hit a mattress factory over on Denton Dr. and ripped it up. We found bedding all over the parking lot and building. No damage to the building. The property in that area has since been demolished and made a part of the expansion of Love Field. It seemed like everything was happening in slow motion, but it wasn’t. Will never forget the green color of the clouds.
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Wow.
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Paula,Thank you for the site.Brings back so many memories.My great grand daddy and grand daddy had Ballard Electric Co. and wired lots of the buildings in downtown.I have a song about him taking me fishing at Lake Cliff that I would love to post a link to but don’t know how.I am a singer/songwriter/musician.Can you do that?I know people from there would love it.Thank you very much…….Tim Barron….tmty05@copper.net…………………………………………. I was 5 years old.Lived on S.Marsalis.I saw why I thought was smoke from a fire and told my grand daddy.He looked at it and said everbody get in the car.I ran out and stood in the field where the highlines ran next to our house and watched that tornado rip houses to shreads just down the hill.He finally got everybody to the car and picked me up and threw me in.We backed out and even backed over the median and headed due south until we got way out past loop 12.We didn’t know if we would have a house when we went back but were blessed that thing barely missed us.
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