Cisco Motel

: site of Cisco Motel

I’m trying to duplicate the whole town of Cisco, Utah in N scale. This post introduces one of the structures in the town.


A few businesses survived along US Hwy 50 & 6 at Cisco in the early 70s; 4 gas service stations, a mercantile/cafe, and a motel. Some private houses also seem to exist along Second Street. Next to Cisco Mercantile on the west sat this structure on Lot 1 to 7 of Block 5, Cisco Townsite.

In the 1971 movie Vanishing Point, the north and west elevations of the structure are seen. West elevation photo of the structure is also found in the book Helldorados, Ghosts and Camps of the Old Southwest[1].


There once existed the Cisco Hotel/Hotel Cisco/Hotel de Cisco next to the Ruth 66 Cafe structure on the west side at Block 6, Cisco Townsite[2, 3].

The Cisco Hotel was erected no later than 1905 by Victor Putman Hanson(1841 ｰ 1920)[4, 5]. It hosted ten guests at $1.50 a day[5]. William Andrew Shideler(1872 ｰ 1939) was the proprietor of the hotel between 1911 and 1919[6]. He rebuilt the hotel structure in 1917[7]. Henry Hansen(1860 ｰ 1932) was the proprietor in 1919, Dean L. Edwards(1874 ｰ ?) was the proprietor the next year, and William Talmadge Portis(1871 ｰ 1942) was the proprietor in 1922. Patrick Franklin Dyer(1861 ｰ 1936) succeeded the business the same year and operated until his passage in 1936[8, 9].

The structure built in 1917 moved to nearby Moab in 1940 and became Moab Hotel operated by Jack and Katherine Poole(1899 ｰ 1976) Rauer[10, 11, 12]. It is said that the structure was cut into blocks and carried by a float on the Colorado River. Furthermore, the structure moved several blocks in 2008 again. It still remains today as a private residence.

: Dec. 4, 1919 Times Independent

The ten-unit motel was constructed after the removal of the hotel[13]. It was verified between 1944 and 1953 as Cowger’s Motel operated by William Richard "Bill"(1889 ｰ 1971) and Mattie Gertrude Holder(1888 ｰ 1961) Cowger[14]. It was claimed as Cisco Motel in the 1970 Notice of General Election; it was used as the polling place between 1964 and 1970[15, 16].

The customers of the motel were gas well crews such as Texaco Oil rather than tourists in the late 40s[17]. Weis, who visited the town in the mid-70s, no later than 1975, reports that the Motel advertised "every room individually heated"[1]. The heating device was a stove burning natural gas[18].


In the late 60s, William Woodrow(1918 ｰ 1984) and Martha M. Walker succeeded the Mercantile business, but not the Motel[19]. William Cowger passed away in 1971 and the successors put the properties up for final tax sale in 1973[20].

"The motel in Cisco it presently occupied by chickens," wrote Val Sullivan in 1979[21]. The chickens must have participated in the rooster fights held in the basement of the closed Mercantile building those days.

1978 Delinquent Tax List has names of Salt Lake City contractor Alexander Louis, Jr(1931 ｰ 1990) and Betty Louise(1934 ｰ 2008) Quigley as the owner of the property[22]. However, unfortunately, it was burnt to the ground in 1979[23]. Today, nothing is left but the curbstones as you can see above.

: Cisco, UT Sep. 11, 2014

I used the screenshot of the movie to draw plans. I also used the 1969 and 1974 USGS aerial photos to infer the dimensions. The result is shown below. Of course, some imaginations are included; particularly in the east elevation.

revised Sep. 30, 2014

revised, Jan. 7, 2015

revised, Aug. 7, 2015

revised, Oct. 23, 2016

revised, Dec. 28, 2016

revised, Jan. 31, 2017

revised Feb. 17, 2018

revised Jan. 6, 2020

revised Nov. 5, 2021

revised Sep. 23, 2022

revised Apr. 18, 2023

[1] Weis, Norman D., (1977) Helldorados, Ghosts and camps of the old Southwest, Caxton Printers
[2] Sep. 11, 1969 Times Independent;
[3] John Barriger III photo of the Hotel and the Mercantile;;
[4] Jan. 21, 1905 Grand Valley Times;
[5] Hooper, S. K., (1906) Hotels and Boarding Houses located on the line of The Rio Grande Railroad System, Circular No.74, Passenger Department, Denver and Rio Grande R.R.
[6] May 16, 1913 Grand Valley Times;
[7] May 11, 1917 Grand Valley Times;
[8] Nov. 23, 1922 Times Independent;
[9] Oct. 22, 1936 Times Independent;
[10] Apr. 18, 1940 Times Independent;
[11] Nov. 10, 1994 Times Independent;
[12] Apr. 24, 1940 Daily Sentinel;
[13] Oct. 1, 1965 Daily Sentinel;
[14] Bennett, Lee A., (2009) A History of Selected Ranches on the Colorado River, Bennett Management Services, LLC;
[15] Oct. 29, 1970 Times Independent;
[16] Apr. 8, 1965 Times Independent;
[17] Hepperle, Mary L., (2004) "Memories of Cisco", Canyon Legacy, vol. 51, Moab Museum;
[18] Sep. 22, 1964 Daily Sentinel;
[19] Jul. 27, 1969 Daily Sentinel;
[20] Apr. 26, 1973 Times Independent;
[21] Jul. 1, 1979 Daily Sentinel;
[22] Dec. 28, 1978 Times Independent;
[23] Jun. 28, 1979 Times Independent;

: references and the drawings of Cisco Motel

: Cisco Motel, east, north and west elevation
　
　　
ユタ州を走るD&RGWの沿線にある／あった、Ciscoという町を紹介している。この建物は「Cisco Mercantile Co.」の西側に建っていた「Cisco Motel」である。Googleのstreet viewで見るように、現在は基礎の一部を残すのみである。

資料によれば、Ciscoにはモーテルが一軒あった。そして、先に紹介したCisco Mercantileには、「MOTEL」のネオン看板が掲げられていた。どうやら、この建物がそのモーテルらしい。この建物がいつ建てられたか不明だが、1952年撮影の航空写真には写っている。1940年に、Ciscoに建っていたという「Hotel de Cisco」の建物が、近くの町に引き屋され移転している。その後このモーテルが建てられたようだ。

この建物は、1979年撮影の航空写真では既に解体されている。70年代に廃業・解体されてしまったようだ。例によって、映画のワンシーンのキャプチャ画像を基に図面を起こしたが、東側は全く資料がない。上の東立面は、同年代のモーテルの写真を参考に、想像で描いている。