The Salida Steam Plant

The Salida Steam Plant. . Electricity was introduced in Salida in 1887 when a group of local townsfolk created The Electric Illuminating Company. In 1892 the then-named Salida Light and Power Company built a 1000-kilowatt steam generating plant at this location on the banks of the Arkansas River. The east half of the building housed the generators or dynamos, the west section contained boilers, furnaces and coal storage. The enclosed yard on the west side once held the transformers for the power plant., Salida Light and Power Company joined with Public Service Co. of Colorado in 1924 and successfully operated the Salida Steam Plant until 1958. By then, cheaper power had become available through the nearby Poncha substation and the Stean Plant was shut down. The building was abandoned and for thirty years it served only as a home of flocks of pigeons. In the late 1980s a visionary group of local townfolk [sic] again banded together to purchase and save the building. Years of hard work and dedication have resulted in the transformation of this historic structure into the pide of the Arkansas Riverwalk.