Cedar Hill is a city in Dallas and Ellis Counties. It lies sixteen miles from downtown Dallas and is adjoined by Joe Pool Lake and Cedar Hill State Park to its west.
Early in its history, Cedar Hill served as the temporary county seat of Dallas County and lay along a branch of the Chisholm Trail. In 1856 a tornado swept through the town killing nine people and destroying most of its buildings. The seat of the county was moved to Dallas not long after. Cedar Hill is part of the Best Southwest area, which includes Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Duncanville, and Lancaster.
Adjacent cities are to Cedar Hill are: Grand Prairie to the southwest, west, and northwest; Dallas to the north; Duncanville to the north and northeast; DeSoto to the northeast and east; Glenn Heights and Ovilla to the southeast; and Midlothian to the south. Most of the city of Cedar Hill is in Dallas County, but a small southern section of the city spills over into Ellis County.
The "Austin chalk" limestone uplift on which most of Cedar Hill is spread is covered with "gumbo"-cleche-clay topsoil from a few inches to many feet. The western edge of the city, primarily the Lake Ridge neighborhood, falls below the limestone uplift on the Eagle Ford shale strata surrounding Joe Pool Lake. Home foundation problems--similar to those in Irving's Las Colinas neighborhood to the north and built on the same strata--await those who fail to take precautions in building on expansive soil lying over the Eagle Ford formation. As noted in the demographics below (and like some of the cities immediately surrounding it such as Duncanville and DeSoto), the city is significantly diverse compared to other cities around Dallas which tend to be predominantly of one ethnic origin or another. In the last few years, the city has been booming with new construction as urban sprawl spreads south of Dallas.