The Name That Means Gateway
Near Salida, Colorado
Most Colorado mining towns are named for a person, a mineral, or a hope. Salida is named for a direction. The word is Spanish, and it means exit, or outlet, or gateway.
Look at the land and the name makes sense. Salida sits exactly where the Arkansas River escapes its broad, high valley and squeezes into the narrower canyons downstream, on its way toward Bighorn Sheep Canyon and the Royal Gorge. The town is the doorway out of the mountains.
Historians tell the naming story two ways, and they genuinely disagree on the details. One account says the name was suggested by the wife of Alexander Hunt, a former territorial governor of Colorado who was connected with the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. Another account credits Hunt himself, saying he had recently traveled in Mexico and thought the Spanish word for exit was the right word for a town at the mouth of a valley.
Either way, the post office first opened under the plain name Arkansas in June of eighteen eighty, and was renamed Salida the following spring. A Spanish word for a small English idea. This is the way out.
