The Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad, along with its successors the Denver, Leadville & Gunnison and the Colorado & Southern, faced heavy operating costs, particularly on the Alpine Tunnel District portion of its route.

The building, with Queen Anne detailing, is a well-preserved and interesting combination of log and frame construction.

The Alpine Tunnel Historic District includes approximately 13 miles of the former Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad railbed across the Continental Divide from Hancock to Quartz, as well as the Alpine Tunnel itself. 

The 1907 library was built as part of Andrew Carnegie’s nationwide, philanthropic, public library movement.

The Salida Livestock Commission is locally significant in the areas of agriculture and commerce for the role it played in the marketing of livestock in central Colorado, providing an important venue for buying and selling cattle, horses, and other animals.

Between 1880 and 1930, downtown Salida became the center of a burgeoning railroad community.  Consisting of 111 buildings, the district’s size bears witness to the importance of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad as a local economic force during the period.

The 1904 Pedro-Botz House is a good example of a modest log house with Late Victorian ornamentation located in an area known as Smeltertown, where employees of the Ohio and Colorado Smelter lived in close proximity to their work. 

In continuous service since 1889, the Gothic Revival style church is a good example of the type of ecclesiastical buildings that were constructed in Colorado’s mountain communities during the late 19th century.

Dating from the late 19th century, the two-story brick and stone building includes decorative brick work in a lattice pattern just below its highly detailed parapet.

The Kesner Memorial Building, designed by architects Leo A. Desjardins and Francis W. Cooper, is the most intact historic educational building in the city of Salida.