Cisco is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

in Grand County,

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, United States near the junction of State Route 128 (SR‑128) and

Interstate 70 Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from Interstate 15, I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to Interstate 695 (Maryland), I-695 and Maryland Route 570 (MD 570) in Woodlawn, Baltimo ...

(I‑70).

History

The town started in the 1880s as a saloon and water-refilling station for the

Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge line running south fr ...

. As work crews and, later, travelers came through, stores, hotels and restaurants sprang up to accommodate them. Nearby cattle ranchers and sheep herders in the Book Cliffs north of town began using Cisco as a livestock and provisioning center. Around the turn of the 20th century sheep were sheared at Cisco before being shipped to market. After oil and natural gas were discovered, Cisco continued to grow. The town's decline coincided with the demise of the

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

. Cisco's already declining economy crashed when Interstate 70 was built, bypassing Cisco. The town site contains many relics of a typical old west railroad town. Cisco survived long enough into the 20th century to be assigned a ZIP Code, 84515.http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/citytown_zip.jsp USPS Zip Code locator The ghost town's easy access and proximity to the freeway have lured vandals, heavily damaging the historical artifacts. While Cisco had no permanent residents for many years, there are many known

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

oil deposits around Cisco, and efforts have been made over the years to extract this shale leading to the town having a few migrant residents working for the oil drilling firms involved. The town was also used in filming the opening and ending scenes of the 1971 cult classic movie

Vanishing Point A vanishing point is a point (geometry), point on the projection plane, image plane of a graphical perspective, perspective rendering where the two-dimensional perspective projections of parallel (geometry), parallel lines in three-dimensional ...

Mining

Oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

and

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

were discovered near Cisco in 1924. In 2005, new oil and gas wells were drilled in the nearby Cisco Oil Field by a Reno, Nevada-based company. Newly drilled wells can be seen next to the railroad track and around the freeway. Cisco Mayor Dan Vanover was also an oil and turquoise miner from 1963 until his death in 1986.

Transportation

Cisco is along the former routing of US-6/ US-50. The town was bypassed with the completion of I‑70 through the area but is still accessible by way of Exit 204. Cisco is listed as a control city for SR‑128, although the highway does not enter Cisco. Cisco is still served by the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...

where a

rail siding In rail terminology, a siding is a low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line, branch line, or spur. It may connect to through track or to other sidings at either end. Sidings often have lighter r ...

remains in use. The

California Zephyr The ''California Zephyr'' is a Amtrak Long Distance, long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago, Illinois, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area (at Emeryville station, Emeryville), via Omaha, Nebraska, Omaha, Denver, Sa ...

passenger train passes through Cisco, but is not a scheduled stop. During the summer months, whitewater river

rafters A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members such as steel beams that extend from the ridge or hip to the wall plate, downslope perimeter or eave, and that are designed to support the roof shingles, roof deck, roof covering and ...

use Cisco as a landing site, particularly for a trip through Westwater Canyon. The

Kokopelli Kokopelli () is a fertility deity, usually depicted as a humpbacked flute player (often with feathers or antenna-like protrusions on his head), who is venerated by some Native American cultures in the Southwestern United States. Like most fe ...

mountain bike A mountain bike (MTB) or mountain bicycle is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling (''mountain biking''). Mountain bikes share some similarities with other bicycles, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in r ...

Trail passes through Cisco.

Gallery

File:Oil wells in Cisco, Utah.jpg, Oil wells in Cisco File:Oil field in Cisco, Utah.jpg, Cisco oil field File:Cisco Yellow House with 1932 rig.jpg, Cisco Yellow House with 1932 rig File:Highway exit 204 on Interstate 70 for Cisco, UT.jpg, Exit sign on westbound Interstate 70

Climate

According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Cisco has a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of se ...

, abbreviated "BSk" on climate maps.

References

External links

{{Authority control Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Ghost towns in Grand County, Utah