The Big Dam
A 1923 hollow concrete dam, a swimming pool billed as the world's largest, and an old zoo turned nature trail.
Explore the Big Dam →Cisco, Texas · Eastland County · on I-20
Small Town. Big Dam. Bigger Story.
A railroad junction that boomed with oil, gave Conrad Hilton his very first hotel, and built a hollow concrete dam the town still calls the Big Dam. Welcome to Cisco.
Cisco facts & figures
Cisco history by the numbers
1919
Conrad Hilton buys his first hotel, the Mobley, in Cisco.1923
The Big Dam is finished on Sandy Creek, creating Lake Cisco.7,422
Cisco's population in the 1920 census, at the height of the oil boom.$3.5B
Value of the 2011 deal for Frac Tech, the Cisco fracking company built by the Wilks brothers.sourceCisco history in 60 seconds
Small town. Outsized story.
Cisco began as a crossroads. In 1881 two railroads met near a settlement called Red Gap, and its residents simply picked up and moved to the crossing.source The railroad sold lots, and promoters called the new town the “Gate City of the West.”
Then came oil. After the 1917 strike at nearby Ranger, fortune seekers flooded the county, and Cisco grew to 7,422 people by 1920.source One of those visitors was a young banker named Conrad Hilton. He came to buy a bank, ended up buying a hotel, and the rest is hospitality history.source
Flush with ambition, Cisco built a massive hollow concrete dam north of town, finished in 1923.source At its foot sat a swimming pool billed as the world's largest.source Around town, the dam goes by one name: the Big Dam.
And Cisco's knack for big things didn't stop with the boom. In the 2000s, local masons Dan and Farris Wilks ran a fracking company out of Cisco that sold in a deal worth billions, and the family's current company, ProFrac, has a plant in Cisco.read more
The stories
Six reasons to take the Cisco exit
Where Hilton Began
The 40-room Mobley Hotel, where oil workers rented beds in eight-hour shifts and a hotel empire was born.
Check in →Oil: Boom Then and Now
From the 1917 Ranger strike to Frac Tech and the fracking equipment built in Cisco today.
Follow the oil →Pie Fest
Every fall, downtown Cisco lays out a 40-foot pie buffet inside the old Hilton hotel. Yes, really.
Grab a fork →Visit Cisco
Museums, lake days, a one-day itinerary, and side trips to Old Rip and the Ranger oil museum.
Plan the trip →The Timeline
From Red Gap to ProFrac, including the 1893 tornado and the infamous 1927 Santa Claus bank robbery.
Read the timeline →A local recommendation
Hilton checked in.
Cisco checks up.
Conrad Hilton came to Cisco in 1919 and left with a hotel. Today the town's smiles are in the hands of Cisco Dental, Dr. Jarred K. Donald DDS, with over 26 years of clinical experience. Same small town. Same big ambitions. Better teeth.
Meet Cisco Dental →
Open Monday–Thursday · Cisco, Texas
Boom, bust, and staying power
A century of Cisco, by the census
Oil money tripled the town in a decade. When the boom faded, Cisco settled into the steady town of about four thousand people it is today.source
U.S. Census counts as reported by the Handbook of Texas and Wikipedia.
Good to know
Questions people ask about Cisco
Why is Cisco, Texas famous?
Cisco is where Conrad Hilton bought his first hotel in 1919, where a hollow concrete dam (the Big Dam) created Lake Cisco in 1923, and where the 1927 Santa Claus Bank Robbery took place. It was also the home base of Frac Tech, a fracking company sold in a 2011 deal worth about $3.5 billion.
Where was the first Hilton hotel?
In Cisco. Conrad Hilton bought the Mobley Hotel here in 1919. The building is now the Conrad Hilton Center, with a small free museum upstairs.source
What is the Big Dam?
It's the local name for Williamson Dam, the 1923 concrete dam that holds back Lake Cisco four to five miles north of town. It's 1,064 feet long and 96 feet high according to the federal dam inventory.source
Can you swim at Lake Cisco?
Lake Cisco is the city's water supply and is used for fishing and boating, with a city lake-use fee. The famous old swimming pool below the dam closed to the public in the 1970s. Check with the City of Cisco for current rules before you go.sourcesource
When is the Cisco Pie Fest?
Cisco TX Pie Fest is now held downtown each fall. The 8th annual festival was Saturday, October 17, 2026. Watch the events page for next year's date.