Cleora Cemetery is a historic four-and-a-half-acre burial ground located on a hill south of the Arkansas River about two miles southeast of downtown Salida. Originally associated with the short-lived town of Cleora, the cemetery received its first…

As Europe stumbled into war in late July and early August 1914, Coloradans viewed the conflict with mixed emotions. Some favored the English, French, Italians, Russians, and their allies. Others preferred the Germans and Austrians and their friends. The…

Kent Haruf (1943–2014) was a novelist best known for Plainsong (1999). Set in the fictional town of Holt in northeast Colorado, Plainsong and Haruf’s other novels examine the lives of ordinary people on the high plains. Often praised for his unadorned…

Built in 1904, the Pedro-Botz House is a log dwelling in the working-class community of Smeltertown, which developed near the Ohio and Colorado Smelter northwest of Salida. Occupied initially by the Hungarian Pedro family and later by the Yugoslavian…

Salida is a city of about 6,000 in the Upper Arkansas River valley, surrounded by Colorado’s central Rocky Mountains. It is the county seat of Chaffee County. Salida is named for the Spanish word for “exit,” as it is located near the mouth of a canyon of…

The Salida steam plant was one of the first Edison electric plants in the country. Built in 1887 by the Salida Edison Electric Light Company, it operated until the 1950s. After 1989 the building was renovated and converted into a city-owned theater and…