90 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. | 
The largest town in the mountains west of Canon City is Salida . 
(from the Spanish word outlet; locally pronounced sah-lie’da), which 
was So named because it stands at the outlet of the 
Salida. upper Arkansas basin. It was settled in 1880 at. the 
Elevation 7,050 feet. time the railroad was being built up the Arkansas | 
teste mites, alley, and it is at the junction of the narrow-gage ; 
road over Marshall Pass to Grand Junction and that 
over Poncha Pass to San Luis Park with the main line of the Denver 
& Rio Grande Western Railroad. Here are the repair shops of the 
railroad and some other manufacturing plants, and a mile northwest 
of the town there is a large smelter. It is a town of homes, but in 
addition there are several hotels for the accommodation of travelers 
who change from one route to another in order to see the beautiful 
scenery for which this region is noted. The town lies in a basin that 
is nearly surrounded by mountains. (See Pl. XLIV.) The Sangre 
de Cristo Range, which begins near Santa Fe, N. Mex., terminates 
just south of the town in a prominent point known as Hunts Peak 
(12,446 feet). The Sawatch Range begins in Mount Ouray (13,955 
feet), a little west of the north end of the Sangre de Cristo Rai 
and stretches northward, including Mount Chipeta, Mount Shavano "> 
(14,179 feet), and other high peaks, shown in Plate XLIV. To the 
north and northeast there is a jumble of lesser ranges without 
special names. 
As the branch railroad lines that enter Salida are narrow-gage 
all the freight originating on them and bound for the East must be 
reloaded into standard-gage cars. This reloading entails consider- 
able expense and loss of time and is a great handicap to the shippers 
on the narrow-gage lines. Narrow-gage cars can run, however, be- 
tween Salida and Leadville, because here a third rail has been main- 
tained for the benefit of the mining interests in shipping ores to 
the smelter. 
A description of the route over Marshall Pass and through the 
Black Canyon begins on page 158. 
MAIN LINE OF RAILROAD FROM SALIDA TO MALTA, 
On leaving Salida the railroad runs up the right side of the valley, 
but it leaves the base pf the hills in a short distance and finds a route _ 
near the middle of the valley. About a mile out of Salida the 
traveler has on the west (left) an unobstructed view of the southern 
part of the Sawatch Range, which at its extreme southern point 
is crossed by the narrow-gage road over Marshall Pass. This line, 
after passing westward from Salida about 6 miles, enters the range 
by Poncha Canyon, which is indicated on Plate XLIV. 
