Eastland & Cisco

Geographically Eastland is a small city located a little west of Dallas on I-20. It is an interesting small town with brick roads around the County Courthouse in the center of town. Sometimes the best part of a small town are the people you meet, for example, Ashley and Fabulous Auntie while eating at Mae’s Restaurant, staff at the Eastland Museum and the executive director at the Conrad Hilton Museum (in Cisco, TX). Cisco is a small town about 10 miles west of Eastland.

What a pleasure to spend time with such good people who love life, their community and what they do.

Eastland & Cisco Attractions

One of the most interesting places in Eastland is the Eastland Museum and Historical Society. It is right off the County Courthouse square. Lots of memorabilia from the oil rush days in the area. We learned a lot of other fun and interesting things about Eastland from the staff.

One of the stories you do hear about is Old Rip. No, not Rip from the TV series, Yellowstone! This Rip is Eastland’s Old Rip, a story about someone thinking it was a good idea to put a horned toad in the cornerstone of the courthouse when it was being built. Legend has it that Old Rip emerged from the cornerstone 31 years later during renovations! That is the folklore anyway!

Of interest is an old turn of the century jail in downtown Eastland, the Eastland Jailhouse. You can only go in during certain times of the year and by prearrangement, months in advance. We didn’t go into the old Jailhouse, but we did see where it was.

Another Museum that was fascinating was the Conrad Hilton Museum in Cisco, TX. The very first Hilton Hotel was in Cisco, TX. In 1919, Conrad Hilton was living in New Mexico when the oil industry was booming in west Texas. He traveled by train to Cisco to open a bank, but the deal fell through. He decided to spend the night in Cisco before heading back to New Mexico. There was only one hotel in town, the newly opened Mobley Hotel. The only problem was the hotel was so busy, they were renting rooms in 8-hour shifts! Hilton decided instead of going into banking, he should go into the hotel business. And a chain was born!

Downtown Eastland & Cisco

No parking meters in downtown Eastland or Cisco! Thank you! Both towns had quaint downtown areas with character. Nice places to take a leisurely walk.

Food and Drink

Eastland: Mae’s Meat Market and Restaurant. Mae’s is a restaurant that was started in 2014 by a brother and sister. Kevin was a butcher, and he wanted to open his own butcher shop. Kay, Kevin’s sister, wanted to start a restaurant. They decided to go in together and open a meat market and a restaurant! It is all in one big room. You can buy any cut of meat and take it home to grill yourself, or you can have the restaurant cook it for you! Casual dining, friendly staff who are family of the owners. This is where we met Ashley and Fabulous Auntie.

Cisco: Muddy Mike’s Bar and Grill. We went to Muddy Mike’s for their “mud bug boil”! Mud bugs are also called crawfish! I do love crawfish! Dave had the chicken fried steak, and he loved it! Great atmosphere, casual dining. There is a huge bar.

Home Base: The Campground

For us, a campground is not our destination. Our RV is self-contained. Except for water, electric and sewer rarely do we use campground services or amenities. We are explorers, not campground reviewers!

We stayed on site 57 at the Wandering Oaks RV Resort in Eastland, Texas. 30 and 50 amp service were available. The campground was clean and well maintained. Fran, the front desk person, was very friendly and helpful. Our full hook up (water-sewer-electric) site was on crushed stone. Our pull through site was long enough to leave the Jeep hooked up and still have both vehicles off the road. There was great cell phone coverage (Verizon) and a good open southern sky for our satellite. Easy off and on I-20. I-20 noise exists, but it is a distance away.

Fun Facts

A claim to fame for Eastland, TX is that they had the last legal lynching in Texas, and it was Santa Claus! On December 23rd, 1927, “Santa Claus” robbed a local bank. He tried to escape the jail and in the process a guard was injured and later died in the hospital. “Santa Claus” was then hanged on a power pole around the corner from the jail behind the theater. Oh my!

	Eastland	Cisco
Population:	3,801	4,029
Elevation:	1,440 ft	1,634 ft
Founded:	1875	1878
Average Income:	$55,802	$57,138
Average House Prices:	$260,000	$127,000
Median Age:	45 yrs	36 yrs

Website https://www.cityofeastland.com/

Summary

As you can probably tell, we very much enjoyed our stay in Eastland. It was well worth the stop just for the friendly people! This is a stop we would highly recommend!

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Since beginning our full-time journey to discover the country, we have found something to appreciate in every city and town we have passed through. We hope you enjoy reading about them as much as we have enjoyed discovering them!

Your partners in travel,
Kathryn and Dave
RVing Nomads

It’s a lifestyle

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• We have visited each town, attraction and restaurant we are writing about. • No person, business or attraction has paid us for an endorsement. • AI has not been used to write any of the content of this blog. • All the photos in this blog were taken by Dave or Kathryn Harrington.