The Salida Town Run of the Arkansas from Stone Bridge to the whitewater park downtown just got a whole lot safer. The Colorado Sun reports that in November, Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Chaffee County commissioners helped fund the $1.2 million removal of a lowhead dam that has threatened river runners, fish habitat for nearly 60 years.
“That stretch is so perfect for people who are just getting into boating or kayaking or really all river running,” Tom Waters, who manages the 152-mile Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area, told the Sun’s Jason Blevins. “Everything is easy and navigable except for that one thing, which can kill you.”
One of the most dangerous features in that 152 miles is the low head dam upstream of Salida. The violent hydraulic below the vertical dam has dumped countless boats, sent even more people into the river and drowned at least four river runners in the past 35 years. And it’s taken a little more than a week for bulldozers and earthmovers to tear down that dam…
Read Full Story Here: