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Salida discovered by Orange County

Brief by Central Staff

Growth – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

A couple of years ago, we ran an article by Joel Kotkin which discussed “The Valhalla Syndrome” — the tendency of politically conservative white suburbanites to flee their current enclaves and look for new homes in the Interior West.

One of the major sources of such emigrants is Orange County, Calif., and its major newspaper, the Orange County Register, featured Salida in a travel feature on Sept. 13.

The article, written by Linda DuVal of Colorado Springs, focused on rafting the Arkansas, rock-hounding in the hills, and the downtown art scene, where we learned, for the first time, that Salida “calls itself the Greenwich Village of the Rockies.”

And perhaps the town will be really successful if Greenwich Village someday calls itself “the Salida of the Eastern Seaboard”?

We also learned that “Salida isn’t a high-energy town … It’s pretty laid-back.”

Oh, if that were only true — seems like we’re too busy, and so is everybody we know, to enjoy the river and rocks.

But at least the Register didn’t encourage its readers to buy secluded 35-acre ranchettes adjoining public land.