Jack Chivvis - Fireside Chat 8/27/26
- Aug 15
- 3 min read
This month's Fireside Chat is a familiar face in Salida. You might see him holding court on F Street, toodling around on his 1940 rusty Schwinn, or on his nearly daily jaunt to Natural Grocers with Linda.
As far as his story, he claims not to be a writer. Neither am I, so I will let him take it from here:
"Jack rolled into Salida in 1975 in a 1954 Chevy pickup with a dream of living in the mountains and enough cash to put down on some mountain Property. That year had been a good one working down in the bottom of a big holes bending rebar in the hot Las Vegas sun. The construction of swimming pools and doing one of its hardest jobs paid a 22 year old guy very well. Within days of arriving in Salida Jack and business partner Don had purchased 20 acres on Rock creek 30 miles northeast of Salida.
The next 5 years were spent building log cabins for ourselves and a local rancher and pursuing the “Jeremiah Johnson” mountain man dream. After yearly stints in Las Vegas still building swimming pools to pay off the land and summers and falls in Colorado Jack was DONE with city life and moved to his log cabin full time, except for one problem, at 9200 feet it was not accessible in the winter. So Jack moved into a coal shed in Salida and went to work for an antique dealer with a large and prosperous business. In 1981 Jack rented the brick carriage house in the alley next to the coal shed and opened his own antique shop.
Hanging out at the Victoria bar one afternoon jack met 2 guides from a very small rafting company and was recruited to work summers for them. It was a time when the rafting industry was really starting to boom and Jack would go on to work every summer for the next 15 years guiding the different sections of the Arkansas river for 4 different companies as well as free lancing with his own boat.
By 1984 Jack had met and married his 'mountain girl' wife Linda who worked at Monarch and had also started a small picture framing business. Together they combined their businesses. In 1985 They bought the building at 148 North F St. Then they became very involved in promoting Salida and especially the sleepy downtown. The next 28 years on that corner saw amazing changes as Jack worked on his own to help stop the historic buildings from getting torn down and for years as a member of the preservation board. Together they tried to set a standard by being the first to have flowers and a bench outside their business. All along they had a vision for what downtown Salida has now become.
Even after the Climax mine closed and other economic factors sent Salida to probably its lowest point ever in the late 1980’s Jack and Linda vowed to stay. Those years were rough years in Salida. Many of their friends leaving, too many houses for sale, few jobs, prime retail store fronts with the windows papered over or simply used to store old appliances. Still loving Salida they purchased a second run down building on North F St. and decided to tough it out believing Salida would eventually turn around.
Now mostly retired from selling art and antiques Jack cruises the downtown on his rusty old 1940 Schwinn and marvels at the amazing renaissance that has happened. Through it all the love of history, the adventures of whitewater rafting, the beautiful mountains and especially the warmth and welcoming of this very special small town and its people have made for an amazing ride.
Hard to sum up the last 40 years ...and you can see I am no writer."
... I don't know, Jack. I enjoyed it.
