By 1886, Salida had survived its rough-and-rowdy beginnings and was becoming a substantial railroad town—but disaster was about to reshape it.

Salida Burns Down follows Salida Sam through 1886 and 1887, years of continued growth, colorful characters, crime, commerce and catastrophe.

In March 1886, fire erupted at the Windsor Hotel and raced through the business district, destroying 27 buildings as exhausted firefighters and townspeople desperately fought the flames. Yet Salida rebuilt and kept growing, even as the town wrestled with the hazards and growing pains of a community transforming from frontier boomtown into an established city.

Told through the journal of fictional observer Salida Sam, the stories are drawn from the historical record. It’s the story of a town that watched much of its business district go up in flames—and then set about building Salida all over again.