WE NEED YOU!
Salida Museum, at 406 ½ West Rainbow Blvd., is in need of volunteers in order to be open to visitors with our usual summer hours. We need docents to open the museum for as many days of the week as possible. If you can manage 4 hours a day on Monday thru Thursday, give us a call or respond to our email address. It’s easy duty and lots of fun, learning about Salida history and interacting with visitors. Hours each day are 12-4pm.
WINTER HOURS
The Salida Museum is now open Friday thru Sunday , 12-4pm.
Admission: Senior $3, Adult $5, Kids $1
We are also available for visitation on other days by request. Please call Arlene Shovald at 719-539-3139 to request a tour. We will do our best to accommodate your request.
Greetings to our Museum Visitors
Harriet Alexander, the woman who had the foresight to start the Salida Museum back in 1954, would be proud and pleased to know we are still up and running in 2025 at 406 ½ U.S. Highway 50, behind the Chamber of Commerce. Harriet started the museum in a small room at the Salida Hot Springs Aquatic Center, right next door. By 1966 the museum had outgrown that space and efforts began to provide the space we are in now and once again, are outgrowing.
Our exhibits include pretty much everything about Salida history, beginning around 1880, when Salida was founded and became a major railroad center.
The museum is staffed by volunteers who are passionate about preserving the past. Summer hours are generally noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, and winter hours are noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Realizing that sometimes folks may be in town for a short visit at other times a volunteer may be available on “off days” by calling 719- 539 -3139. We will do our best to accommodate folks who are interested in learning about Salida history.
Welcome Back Steve!
Steve Chapman’s Salida Walking Tours start up again Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. Steve brings history to life and shows you where it happened.
𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀
- 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗪𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗧𝗼𝘂𝗿 – Saturdays at 9:00 AM
Outlaws, brothels, railroad days, and the stories that shaped the early town - 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝘁𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗧𝗼𝘂𝗿 – Wednesdays at 9:00 AM
Architecture, preservation, and the people behind Salida’s National Historic District
In September, take a walk with Steve through Cleora Cemetery, Life & Death in Chaffee County, 10 a.m., Saturdays in September.
October gets scarier than ever with Steve’s popular, the original Salida Ghost Tour 7 p.m. Fridays.
Holy Nights & Mountain Lights Christmas tours run 5:30 p.m., Saturdays in December.
Since 2018 Steve’s Walking Tours have set the standard for authenticity and fun. This year Salida Museum is a proud partner along with other local nonprofits. For bookings, go to: SalidaWalkingTours.com. And, Steve is already planning a revised full schedule for 2027.
Welcome to the Salida Museum
The City of Salida, Colorado, Heart of the Rockies, is in a prime location for many reasons and this is reflected in its varied and colorful history. The Salida Museum has a lovely collection of beautifully curated, local historical artifacts to help you explore the history of our area. The museum collection was first displayed in 1954 and has continued to grow and improve since then.
Explorers, miners, and ranchers were among the first to settle in the area, aided by an early agreement with the Ute Indians. Gold and Silver discoveries in the region in the 1870s caused the population to boom. More wagon trails were laid in to connect the mines with the Salida area for resupply as well as with markets on the Front Range.
Soon thereafter came the big push by railroads to reach the rich mining areas around Salida and to cross the rugged Rocky Mountains. Following a protracted fight on many levels to build track through the precipitous Royal Gorge east of Salida, the Denver and Rio Grande railroad arrived in Salida and the Upper Arkansas River valley in 1880.
1880 was a very busy year for our town! The railroad launched Salida into a period of rapid growth and was instrumental in helping it become a real community. First, many of the residents of tiny Cleora moved two miles west to resettle where the D&RG set up their work center along the Arkansas River. This new community was briefly named South Arkansas. Then, a few months later, the town was incorporated with the name of Salida. At this point it was called “The liveliest town in Colorado” by the Gunnison Review-Press.
Salida means exit in Spanish. Depending on your perspective, this is an exit from the canyon and the gateway to the mountains, or an exit from the mountains and the gateway to the eastern plains. In a perfect complement to the Salida Museum, downtown Salida is on the National Register of Historic Places and is Colorado’s largest historic district.