Salida

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Our plan for today had been to travel further west across the continental divide but the weather forecast changed our plans. Presently it is gorgeous autumn weather with sunny blue skies and temps in the 60's and 70's but there is a storm coming from the west which will drop the temperatures and bring snow. We have decided to stay on the eastern side of the continental divide until the storm passes so the weather should be a little better. Evidently there will be only one not so good day and then it will warm again. We chose the town of Salida to be our home base for the next few days. Salida anchors the Upper Arkansas River Valley in central Colorado. Although flanked by majestic 14,000-foot snow capped peaks, at just over 7,000 feet in elevation, Salida enjoys a surprisingly mild climate that some refer to as the Banana Belt. Leadville was our first stop on the way to Salida.
Leadville is a former silver mining town with an interesting history and an historic downtown district.
One historic building is the Tabor Opera House. The Tabor Opera House, once known as the finest theater between St. Louis and San Francisco, was built in 1879 by Horace Austin Warner Tabor, one of Leadville's wealthy silver miners. The opera house was built in 100 days, stood three stories high, was constructed of stone, brick and iron, trimmed with Portland cement, and cost $40,000 to build. During 1893 Tabor lost the opera house and much of his wealth as silver prices plummeted as a result of the Sherman Silver Act, which removed silver as the mineral backing currency in the US. Tabor died in 1899, a poor man.
The opera house changed hands several times until 1955, when it became the Tabor Opera House again. Many well known personalities have performed at the opera house, including: Houdini, John Philip Sousa, Oscar Wilde, and Anna Held. Today, the building is preserved as an opera house so visitors may enjoy it. Photographs, wooden floors, the stage, threadbare carpet, and empty seats are part of the experience visitors have when visiting the Opera House.
In the late 1800s, Leadville was the second most populous city in Colorado, after Denver. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population has shrunk to only 2,688 in 2005.
We continued on along was is known as Collegiate Peaks scenic byway. It is so named because all the mountain peaks along the way have been give the name of well known colleges in the US ...... Yale, Princeton, Harvard etc.
Lunch today was at a lovely little spot we found along side the Arkansas river on CR 371. The temp was 74 degrees, clear blue skies with puffy clouds, gentle breezes and we were surrounded by golden cottonwoods and aspens.
Our second stop of interest was St. Elmo, a ghost town on CR 162. St. Elmo is unique because the buildings are preserved not restored and has been labeled Colorado's Best Preserved Ghost Town. Nearly 2,000 people settled in this town when mining for gold and silver became evident. The mining industry started to decline in the early 1920s, and in 1922 the train discontinued service. The community is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as St. Elmo Historic District. The town was at its pinnacle in the 1890s, when it included a telegraph office, general store, town hall, 5 hotels, saloons, dancing halls, a newspaper office, and a school house. The Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad line ran through St. Elmo. There were 150 patented mine claims within the area. The majority of the people who lived in St. Elmo worked at the mines. The Mary Murphy Mine was the largest and most successful in the area. and drew over $60,000,000 worth of gold while it was in use. While the other mines eventually shut down, the Mary Murphy Mine continued until the railroad shutdown in 1922.
Once the mining industry shut down, St. Elmo drastically declined in population. Miners searched elsewhere for gold and silver and the business district in St. Elmo shut down as well. Few people continued to live in the town. Postal service discontinued in 1952 after the death of St. Elmo's postmaster.
After St Elmo we headed back to the hotel in Salida. The hotel is a Days Inn run by a European couple and is the nicest we have stayed in on this trip. It comes complete with a little Dachshund named Oscar who greets us with his wagging tail at every opportunity and some lovely classical music played at breakfast each morning.
Tomorrows trip depends upon the weather.

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