Memories of a ghost town
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CISCO, UTAH — Seven days a week, from the first of March to the first of November, a Grand Junction resident named Jean drives thirty miles across Colorado's western border to open the lone storefront in the now-ghost town of Cisco, Utah.
Though full-time residents are few and far between in Cisco, the once-hopping train town is vibrant with Jean’s own dream come true. Buzzard's Belly General Store is part thrift store, part convenience store, and part curio shop. The name is one she had in mind for 25 years: “I always thought it would be fun to sell whatever I want,” Jean said. “So I do.”
When Jean opened the store in 2019, it had been 15 years since Cisco had a general store. Customers now come to Buzzard's Belly from all directions.
The most notable thing about Cisco these days might be a shop named after a bird. But over the years, Cisco has had many claims to fame.
Cisco, Utah began as an 1880’s-era watering hole and saloon stop for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad.
Once ripe with profits from the sheep industry, then oil and gas development, the fall of the steam locomotive eventually took Cisco down. With the rise of the automobile and the building of I-70 bypassing Cisco, the town eventually dried up.
Inside the Buzzard's Belly General Store, you’ll find T-shirts and posters with Thelma & Louise on them. You'll also find images of a famous white 1970 Dodge Challenger from the cult 70s car chase film Vanishing Point. Both Thelma & Louise and Vanishing Point had scenes filmed in Cisco.
As legend has it, the cowboy hat donned by Susan Sarandon’s character Lousie in Thelma & Louise was taken from a local. In the film, Sarandon trades jewelry for the older gentleman’s hat.
Though the buildings seen in Thelma & Lousie are no longer standing, memory still has on file that Cisco played an important role in the making of the film.
And that’s not Cisco’s only cinematic claim to fame – the explosive ending of the 1971 movie Vanishing Point was also filmed here.
Today, many who ramble in to Buzzard's Belly General Store are movie fans on a pilgrimage to seek out these iconic locations.
Cash wrote his own talking song to the backdrop of a tinkling honky-tonk piano and called it “Cisco Clifton’s Fillin’ Station.” It was released on his 1967 album "Sea to Shining Sea."
Cisco Clifton had a fillin’ station
About a mile and a half from town
Most cars passed unless they were out of gas
So Cisco was always around
Regular gas was all that it sold
Except tobacco matches and oil
Other than that he fixed lots of flats
Keepin’ Cisco rough hands soiled
He’d wipe the gas and check the air
In a hundred times a day
He patiently gave directions
On how to get to the state highway
-“Cisco Clifton’s Fillin’ Station” by Johnny Cash
Below, listen to a recording of Harris’ son, Dale Harris, talking to Rocky Mountain PBS about his parents’ encounter with Cash – back when Cisco had enough residents to support a grade school, and before Harris’ impending vision of a ghost town came true.
“When we first moved to Cisco, it was a railroad stop,” Harris said. “The people who lived there worked on the section crews. Later, they quit running steam engines, so they didn’t need to stop there. People started building gas stations and stores along the highway in Cisco – including my dad.”
Ballard Harris built the Cisco filling station in the mid-1950s. His son Dale grew up working alongside him in the station in the summertime, as well as his wife, who was also the town postmaster.
“My father was a great one for just visiting with the people who stopped at the service station,” said Dale Harris. “He’d tell them the history of Cisco, and everything that was going on.”
By the 1990s, many of the formative buildings of Cisco were in severe decay, victim to the desert wind and sand.
Today, folks still stop and visit Cisco – including the Buzzard’s Belly General Store, with “the most unexpected treasures out in the middle of nowhere.”
Cullen Purser is a Multimedia Journalist with Rocky Mountain PBS and can be reached at cullenpurser@rmpbs.org.
