Accidental Billionaire - Eastland County Safety Rest Area - Ranger, TX
N 32° 29.456 W 098° 33.047
14S E 542202 N 3594943
The Eastland County Safety Rest Area on westbound I-20 has a history sign for Conrad Hilton, who failed miserably in pursuing his career choice as a banker, but then he purchased a hotel up the road in Cisco to try something else.
Waymark Code: WM12C0K
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 04/23/2020
Views: 1
They're called "Safety Rest Areas" because there are storm shelters to be found, a change from the classical rest stops along the Interstates. They're a little more than facilities with picnic areas and vending machines, in that there are signs and exhibits for notable attractions in the county that sponsored the rest area. This sign stands in front of a mock-up of a gas station, for another exhibit, and it reads:
After serving in the Army in World War II, a young man named Conrad Hilton came to the Eastland County town of Cisco to make his fortune. Cisco was a likely place to make a fortune because it was on the edge of the booming Ranger oil field where many fortunes were already being made. He arrived in Cisco with $5,000 pinned to the lining of his coat. He intended to purchase a local bank, but the seller kept going up on the purchase price. Frustrated, Hilton went across the street to the Mobley Hotel to rest. He noticed the hotel was a beehive of activity, the rooms rented mostly to oilfield workers on eight-hour shifts. Business was so brisk that the rooms sometimes changed hands three times a day. When he found the other hotels in town were full he forgot about a career in banking and within days bought the Mobley Hotel instead. It was an immediate success. He called it half flophouse and half goldmine.
In the next few years he purchased hotels in Dallas, Abilene, Waco and Fort Worth, the first of his hotels to bear the Hilton name. During the Depression, he nearly went bankrupt, but he managed to hang on. In the next decade he purchased more hotels in California, Chicago and New York, including the fabled Waldorf-Astoria. Then he expanded his chain internationally. By the time of his death he owned 185 hotels worldwide and by the end of the 20th century, the chain he created was worth $6.2 billion.
Although you can't stay at the old Mobley Hotel, a few of its rooms have been preserved as they were in 1919. So as you travel westbound on Interstate 20, visit the town of Cisco where Conrad Hilton was unable to buy a bank. It was an accident of fate that would lead to one of the great American fortunes.
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Insets show a photo of Conrad Hilton as a young man, a photo of the Mobley Hotel in Cisco, and the corner armoire of one of its display rooms.
Group that erected the marker: Eastland County
URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link]
Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary:
Eastland County Safety Rest Area
I-20
Ranger, TX USA
76470
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