Salida Mail, May 15, 1903: J. H. Raven of Detroit has charge of the auction sale of Strait Brothers auction sale and he says that although a large quantity of the stock has already been disposed of that it will require some time yet to close out the entire stock. As soon as business matters can be satisfactorily arrranged the partnershiip will be dissolved. For some time past the older brother, J. H. Strait, has been in very poor health and has decided to spend the summer in the hills on a cattle range. Charles E. Strait, the younger brother will return to the east and engage in business there, first taking a course of training in high-class engraving and watch making. Since locating in Salida both gentlemen have been identified among our most prominent business men and their removal from the city will be very generally regretted. The elder Strait owns a large amount of Salida property and will continue to make this his home.

Salida Mail, June 6, 1903: An addition is being made to the second floor of the Hively building. Two rooms are being added to the one story portion in the rear which are connected with the office suite of Drs. Parker and Kramer. The new rooms will be used by Dr. Kramer while the room now used by him will serve as a reception room for both doctors and the present reception room will be added to the private rooms of Dr. Parker.

Salida Mail, July 18, 1903: Drs. Kramer and Parker are now located in their rearranged, enlarged and improved office suite in the Hively building. Dr. Parker has the front suit of two rooms while Dr. Kramer has the two new rooms in the rear. A common reception room between accommodates both. The suites are handsomely furnished and the occupants are justly proud of their quarters, for there are few to be found that afford better accommodations.

Salida Mail, Dec. 10, 1903: L. C. Beasley of the Salida Brokerage company, moved this week with his family into the residence on D Street owned by Mrs. Bassett of Leadville.

Salida Record, April 13, 1904: In addition to a general remodeling and cleaning, the Monte Cristo Hotel is to be enlarged by a two-story addition.The addition will be about sixty feet long and the intention is for a part of this addition, at least to be used as the offices of the dispatchers, and others, who are now located on the second floor of the hotel, and the rooms now occupied by them will be placed at the disposal of guests.

Landlord Osborn of the hotel is desirous of making the Monte Cristo one of the most popular stopping places in the state and is on the right road to this end.

Salida Record, July 22, 1904: Mr. and Mrs. Cope have recently taken charge of the Bon Ton Hotel and are satisfying the old patrons and incidentally making new ones for the businesss every day. Mr. Cope has had considerable hotel experience having at one time been affiliated with his brother, H. C. Cope, in the management of the St. Claire hotel.

The Bon Ton is admirably situated to catch the tourist trade and under the guidance which Mr. Cope will be able to give the business it should be a lucrative one.

Salida Record, August 26, 1904: B. F. Spencer, representing the Continental Crude Rubber Company, came in from Denver and imparted the information that the machinery for establishing the Salida plant for extraction of crude rubber from the rubber plant, had been shipped from Denver previous to his departure. Owing to the slow progresss of freight trains it had not reached here this morning but is expected onn every train.

The old creamery building will be utilized to accommodate the plant and it is expected by the time the rubber plant is ripe for treatment, which is after the first frost, the machinery will all be placed and everything in readiness forlmaking rubber. The importance of this announcement will be realized when it is stated that this will be the first plant of machinery established in the world for the purpose of extracting crude rubber from the native plant, and the first crude rubber extraction plant of any sort whatever ln the United States. The success of the enterprise means the inauguration of a vast industry for arid America.

Salida Mail, May 30, 1928: Horace G. Frantz informed the Chamber of Commerce Tuesday evening that he will go on with his plans to enlarge and beautify the trout farm even if no stock is subscribed here, but he desires the co-operation of the people of Salida in making this the biggest attraction in this section of the state.

Mr. Frantz received a cordial welcome and was assured that the Chamber of Commerce, while making no recommendaitons regarding financial investments of any kind, feels kindly and enthusiastic about his project and wishes him success.

Mr. Frantz already has sold several large blocks of stock in Salida. It is probable that the entire issue of stock soon will be taken over by Eastern investors.

Salida Mail, Feb 17, 1929: Salida will have its first airplane in a few weeks, and there will be a flock of them here before summer. Earl Rorer and R. D. Young will leave today or Saturday for Wichita, Kan., where they will attend an airplane show, visit several factories and select a plane for their own use. Mr. Young who has had training as an aviator will take further flight instructions in Wichita.

"Salida should have had a landing field long ago," said Mr. Rorer yesterday. "It has been our plan to sell airplanes here but we have been waiting on a field. We will wait no longer."

Salida, Mail, March 18, 1929: Waggoner's Tire shop will remove April 15 to the Continental corner at First and E streets. Ground was broken last week for a tire repair shop 40 ft. x 60 ft. and as soon as this is completed the move will be made.

The new location will give the Waggoner Bros. further opportunity for their growing business and will enable them also to handle gasoline and oils.

Salida Mail, April 29, 1929: One and a quarter million of rainbow trout will be hatched at the Frantzhurst Trout Farm this year to supply the market in 1930. Figuring the average loss of young fish it is expected that these eggs will produce 600,000 pounds of fish in a year which will be worth a half million dollars. This is an idea of magnitude of a business that has sprung up in Salida.

Salida Mail, July 18, 1929: Property owners on Second Street between E and G streets are signing an agreement with the Public Service Company to install ornamental lighting. eight ornamental poles will be surmounted by a globe containing 348 candle power lights. There are now eight poles to the block on F Street, but the lights are only 100 candle power. The new lighting system will give nearly three and one-half times as much illumination.

Salida Mail, June 6, 1953: The Frantzhurst Rainbow Trout Co., advertised as the largest trout farm in the world, went under the sheriff's auction hammer Tuesday for a bid of $130,000 to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. The property, the result of a project started in 1926 by Horace G. Frantz, Sr. represented an estimated investment of over three quarters of a million dollars.

The farm, which has been second only to the Royal Gorge Bridge in attracting tourists to this area, has the capacity to start and rear over a million trout at any given time. Commericial trout have been shipped all over the world from the installation.

Salida Daily Mail-Record, April 23, 1954: Perhaps the highest greenhouse in the United States is located near the mouth of Chalk Creek Gulch at an elevation of 8500 feet. In addition, it is heated with natural hot water from the Hortense Spring, supposed to be the mother spring of 35 or 40 offshoots burbling in the vicinity at the mouth of Chalk Creek Gulch.

Whe Jack P. Wright sold his former greenhouse in Waverly, Iowa, and bought a small acreage at the base of Mt. Princeton, he wasn't looking for an "easy" way to make a greenhouse pay, but as he aptly expresses it himself, "...I just built the greenhouse here because this is where I want to live."

Salida Daily Mail-Record, July 28, 1954: Public Service Company of Colorado workmen have started on the job of installing the new mercury-vapor street lighting system in Salida. Representatives of the company would not commit themselves as to hwen the lights would be turned on. At present workmen are drilling holes in the sidewalks, preparatory to putting in the bases and setting the poles.

The Mountain Mail, Sept. 12, 1978: "Salida, heart of the Rockies" was revealed to a surprised audience attending the grand opening of the Chaffee County Bank Saturday morning.

Salida — Heart of the Rockies?

It's a song..."Where the Arkansas River sparkles in the sun..

"And rushes through the valley in the pines..."

That's how the song about Salida starts. The record was revealed just prior to the ribbon cutting.

Roy Bown, president of the Chaffee County Bank, presented the song to Mayor Ed Touber who in turn presented it to the Heart of the Rockies Chamber and Executive Director Val Bergman.

"We believe this record is something that everyone here can take pride in," Bowen said. "We're sure that people will want to send records to their friends and relatives in other cities and states."

The Mountain Mail, Oct. 13, 1978: Shavano Air, the locally owned air commuter service, celebrated its first year of operation Sept 19. In its first year, Shavano flew more than 1,100 passengers and hauled more than 10,000 pounds of freight.

Giving credence to Salida's claim to be the state's sunshyine capital, only 21 of 678 scheduled flights were cancelled due to poor weather. The small airline makes two round-trip flights daily between Salida, Leadville and Denver, and one round-trip on Sundays.

The Mountain Mail, Dec. 17, 1978: For more than six decades, Starbuck's Dairy has been delivering milk to its customers at their homes in Salida and Chaffee County.But that record of more than 62 years of service ends on Friday when Starbuck's will discontinue door-to-door deliveries, a victim of changing times and the march of the inflation.

Glen Starbuck, the owner and operator of the dairy, said continuing the home deliveries was a losing proposition.

"The price of vehicles, gas and labor make it prohibitive to continue making the deliveries," Starbuck said.

The Mountain Mail, March 19, 1979: This summer, when tourists and your friends and relatives come to Salida, they may want to find out about the area without borthering you for details. They'll stop in at an impressive airy, carpeted and nicely decorated buildling, the new Chamber of Commerce building on U.S. 50, next to the Salida Hot Springs Pool.

The $24,000 Heart of the Rockies building was completed in July.

"We've noticed the increase in drop-in traffic already," said Valarie Bergman, Executive Director. The chamber moved to the new location to be more accessible to tourists traveling through the area. The old office was located on Third Street.