Howdy, botanical explorers!
You might remember a LOOONGGGGG time ago, when I first switched my blog over to The Botanical Texan, I wrote a post all about hiking Cedar Ridge Nature Preserve. Well, in my reinvigorated effort to make this little corner of the internet a priority again, I thought it was time to circle back to that idea.
So, welcome to Texas Trail Guides! Or, more accurately, the revival of a slightly forgotten series. These guides will be all about great places to hike and wander around Texas, with a Botanical Texan twist. We’ll talk about what to expect on the trail, what plants and wildlife to look for, a little local history, and, of course, plenty of opportunities to put all those fun botanical facts you’ve learned here to use in the wild. And I have the perfect trail to kick things off!
Every Labor Day weekend, my friend Laurel and I head out for our annual hike. This year, we made our way to the Old Zoo Nature Trail in Cisco, Texas, where a short nature trail winds through the crumbling remains of a nearly century-old zoo.
So, lace up your hiking shoes and grab your plant ID app. We’re heading to Cisco!
The story of Cisco Zoo
Like any good botanical archaeologist, you’ve got to know a little history about the place you’re visiting before heading out on your expedition! The old Cisco Zoo began with a dam! And not a beaver’s dam! (Sorry, that was my poor attempt at a joke.)
During the petroleum boom that helped shape Cisco, Texas, the growing city found itself facing a water shortage, which led to the development of the Williamson Dam. Somewhere along the way, a deer ended up being donated to the city, followed later by a bear. And where do you put a deer and a bear when your town doesn’t actually have a zoo? Apparently, inside the hollow structure beneath the dam. And thus, in 1923, the Cisco Zoo was born!
However, it didn’t take long for folks to realize that living underneath a dam was probably not the best arrangement for the animals. Within that same year, they began constructing actual enclosures built directly into the rocky bluff nearby. Those enclosures, or what’s left of them, are what you’ll get to explore along the trail today!
It’s a little difficult to find exact records of every animal that called the Cisco Zoo home, but from what I could piece together, it had quite the menagerie. Ostriches, a giraffe, a hippo, peacocks, a cougar, flamingos, monkeys, a tarantula, a lion, and, of course, our aforementioned bear all seem to have made an appearance. Quite the collection for a little Texas zoo!
Dr. Charles H. Hale served as the zoo’s director, and while digging through old newspaper articles, I found that he was advocating for the creation of a local zoological society to help fund improvements and advancements for the zoo. Which, as you’ll see in a bit, probably would have been helpful because this zoo would absolutely not meet modern AZA standards!
The zoo eventually became defunct around 1938, but exactly why it closed is where things get a little murky.
If you read other blogs about the Old Cisco Zoo, you’ll often see the story that it closed after its bear was mysteriously poisoned. And here’s the thing: the bear really was poisoned! However, I found an old newspaper article from 1930 that was already reporting the bear’s poisoning and death. If the zoo continued operating until around 1938, that leaves us with another eight years of zoo history after the infamous bear incident. So, personally, I’m not convinced the poisoned bear was the zoo’s ultimate downfall.
I’m more apt to think the Great Depression, combined with Cisco’s fading oil boom, played a role in its eventual closure. Maintaining a zoo full of exotic animals certainly couldn’t have been cheap, especially for a town whose boom years were beginning to fade. The real answer may be a combination of factors, but I think there’s probably a little more to the story than one mysteriously poisoned bear.
Fast-forward to modern day, and the Old Zoo Nature Trail itself is actually a pretty recent addition to Cisco! For decades, the old enclosures sat hidden among the brush as nature slowly reclaimed the bluff. It wasn’t until 2021 that a local nonprofit came through and began clearing away the overgrowth, uncovering the old zoo ruins and giving people the chance to explore them once again.
And that brings us to the trail we get to wander today!
Hiking the old zoo nature trail
Know before you go
Now, with all that history tucked away in our noggins, let’s do a little fact-finding on the trail as it exists today! Below is everything I think you should know before you go.
- Location | The Old Zoo Nature Trail is about 2.5 hours from DFW, and once you make it to Cisco, the actual trailhead is a little tucked away along the side of the road. I drove right past it the first time and had to loop back around. Once you spot the dam, though, you’re basically there. The trailhead will be on the left side of the road.
- Trail Length | This trail is actually pretty short at only about 1.5 miles for the full loop. I’d also consider it a fairly easy hike. There are quite a few old stone steps that are very clearly not built to today’s standards, but aside from watching your footing there, it’s a pretty easy walk.
- Elevation | Despite all those stairs, the total elevation gain is only around 150 feet. It is just enough to give you some pretty epic views of the surrounding landscape. Listen, we’re in Texas. We have to take our scenic overlooks wherever we can get them!
- Time Needed | Taking driving time out of the equation, I’d plan for about an hour to an hour and a half to explore the trail. Laurel and I ended up hanging around for closer to two hours because there is also a historic concrete swimming pool, that claims to be the world’s largest, nearby that is worth wandering over to see. It is, unfortunately, no longer a functioning swimming pool, so leave the floaties at home.
- Parking | Parking is very informal. You’re basically just pulling off along the side of the road near the trailhead, so don’t expect a big paved parking lot or anything fancy.
- Facilities | There are public restrooms in the park near the trail, which is always good news before a hike! There aren’t any water fountains along the trail, though, so definitely remember to bring your own water.
A hike through zoo design
Okay, history and logistics out of the way. Let’s get into the fun part: what can you actually expect to see?
One of the first things Laurel and I discovered is that it’s surprisingly hard to tell which enclosure belonged to which animal. That did not stop us from having an absolute blast trying to guess, of course.
Apparently, the enclosures once had medallions identifying the animals that lived there, but sadly, those have been stolen over the years. The sign at the beginning of the trail made it sound like only a few had gone missing, so I spent the first part of our hike determined to find one. Spoiler alert: we did not see a single medallion. So our game of 1920s zoo detective continued.
But honestly, not knowing exactly what lived where made me pay even more attention to the enclosures themselves. And this is where my landscape architect/zoo nerd brain really kicked in.
Back in 2022, I took the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Creating Successful Exhibits course, and one of the things we studied was how zoo design has evolved over time. Zoos didn’t begin as the conservation-focused institutions we think of today. Their roots can be traced back to menageries, essentially collections of unusual or exotic animals displayed largely for human curiosity and entertainment. Eventually, zoos became more scientific and educational institutions, and exhibit design began evolving along with them. You can actually see pieces of that evolution while walking through the Old Cisco Zoo.
Some of the enclosures feel very much like the old-school Victorian approach to zoo design: here is an animal, and here is a cage to put it in. They’re small, heavily enclosed, and seem to give very little consideration to what that particular animal might actually need to thrive. The goal was largely to allow visitors to get a good look at the animal. But then you start finding spaces that feel different.
Around the turn of the 20th century, animal dealer and zoo designer Carl Hagenbeck helped popularize a dramatically different approach to zoo exhibits. Instead of viewing animals through rows of bars, his designs used things like moats, rockwork, changes in elevation, and carefully arranged landscapes to create the illusion that animals were living in more open, natural environments.
As we wandered farther through Cisco’s zoo, I felt like you could see little hints of that changing philosophy in the ruins. Some enclosures open up more. The bluff itself becomes part of the exhibit. Rock, elevation, caves, and the surrounding landscape start doing some of the work that bars and cages once did. In fact, there was one enclosure in particular that Laurel and I immediately decided had to be the bear enclosure. It had a little cave-like area built into it, along with places that appeared to offer shade and respite. Perfect for a bear. Plus after a little internet sleuthing I found a picture that I think confirms our hyptothisis!
Was it anything close to what we would consider a good bear habitat today? Absolutely not. But that’s what made the Old Cisco Zoo so fascinating to me. You’re not just walking through abandoned animal enclosures. You’re walking through a little snapshot of a profession and philosophy that were actively changing.
Modern accredited zoos take exhibit design much further. A good habitat isn’t simply about making something look natural to us. Designers have to consider animal welfare, behavioral needs, opportunities for choice and enrichment, keeper access and safety, veterinary care, visitor experience, education, conservation messaging, and about a million other things happening behind the scenes. Ideally, the landscape helps tell the animal’s story while also giving that animal the ability to behave like, well, an animal.
As I used to tell guests when I worked at the Dallas Zoo, those animals are basically living the life of luxury in the zoo equivalent of a home in Highland Park. (For my non-Dallas readers, just know that’s some very expensive real estate.)
And I think that’s what excited me most about visiting the Old Cisco Zoo Trail. As a landscape architect who also happens to be a giant zoo nerd, I could have spent HOURS looking at these enclosures.
The crumbling ruins are this little time capsule sitting somewhere along the HUGE timeline between animals as a collection of interesting things for us to look at and animals as ambassadors for the species and ecosystems we’re trying to understand and protect.
Okay, that’s probably enough zoo nerding for one post!
Obviously, this Texas Trail Guide ended up being a little more landscape architecture than botanical, but hey, that’s part of the fun of The Botanical Texan, right? You never quite know what rabbit hole we’re going to wander down. I bet you didn’t expect a post about a little hiking trail outside of DFW to turn into a lesson on the evolution of zoo design, but here we are! I’ve already got a few more Texas Trail Guides queued up to write, so stick around and follow along on the next botanical adventure. Who knows what we’ll end up learning about next (well I do since I’m the author! haha)
