Last week, we looked at Alabama through Idaho. This week, it’s Illinois through Montana.
Illinois – The Pantagraph (Bloomington)
“Panta,” prefix, everything, all, the whole. “Graph,” suffix, something written or drawn.
So, I guess this means, basically, all the news that’s fit to print … Illinois style. Actually, that would be central Illinois style – you know, Bloomington, Normal, Champaign-Urbana, Decatur, Quincy …
This paper dates back all the way to 1837. Over the years, it’s been The Bloomington Observer and McLean County Advocate, The Whig, The Intelligencer & The Daily Pantagraph. It’s a daily, and has a circulation of not quite 17,000.
Featured stories in the latest edition include:
- A local promoted to lieutenant colonel
- “Towanda native earns national junior angus [steer] bronze, silver awards”
- “Winners announced for East Peoria's annual duck race fundraiser”
Bloomington? It’s got a population of not quite 79,000, and is about half way between Chicago & St Louis. It’s home to State Farm and Beer Nuts.
Honorable mention:
- Edwardsville Intelligencer
- Homer Horizon (Homer Glen)
Indiana – The Paper of Montgomery County (Crawfordsville)
Well, it gets right to the point, I’ll give ‘em that. I wonder, though, if they considered something more along the lines of the Montgomery County Press, or Montgomery County Post, or Montgomery County Times, or anything with at least a little more pizzazz.
Their mission statement is along much the same lines:
“The Paper of Montgomery County Indiana is a daily newspaper devoted to promoting the people and events of Montgomery County.”
It’s a daily, though not published on weekends. Interestingly, it has a low, low rating of 1.8 (out of 5) on Google. That’s from only 4 people, though, with the single quote offering up the somewhat cryptic “Stop calling.”
Montgomery County? It’s in the west central part of the state and has a population of 38,000. The county seat is indeed Crawfordsville. The county also includes the towns of New Market, New Richmond, and New Ross, as well as the “other unincorporated places” of Mace, Fiskville, Smartsburg, and Lapland.
Honorable mention
- Paladium-Item (Richmond)
- Elkhart Truth
Iowa – Thompson Courier and Rake Register
Courier, I get. Same with Register. But Rake?
Turns out it’s actually the name of a town, with Thompson and Rake being about 5 miles apart as the crow flies (but 15 the crazy way Iowa roads are laid out). They’re both in Winnebago County, dead center on the border with Minnesota.
My only question, though, is what happened to Buffalo Center? I mean, it’s less than 10 miles from either of them, and forms the pivot point to get between the two. Sounds like they’re served by the Winnebago County Tribune though. And that would definitely not fit if added to the masthead.
Thompson’s got abut 500 people, and dates back to 1892. It’s home to the county fair. Rake’s got 185 people, and dates back to 1900. It’s named after some guy, an early settler.
The paper’s a weekly.
Honorable mention: Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil
Kansas – Belleville Telescope
Well, it is “an object used to see faraway objects,” so I’m guessing this paper has really good coverage for state, national & international events.
It’s hard to tell, though, as pretty much everything’s behind a paywall on this one. I do know that it has a circulation of 2,765, and dates back to 1870.
As for Belleville, it’s dead center on the border with Nebraska, and has about 2,000 people. Wikipedia lists 5 “notable people,” including an MLBer, an NFLer, and an astronaut, none of whom ever I’ve heard of.
Honorable mention: Mulberry Advance
Kentucky – Barren County Progress (Glasgow)
It’s not “Progress” that I’m questioning here. Though a bit unusual, it does make some sense, and is also not too awkward.
It’s the name of the county. Did they think that would attract settlers? Or, alternatively, did they want to scare settlers away, so they could have all the land to themselves?
Turns out that the county was part of the Barrens, prarieland that was barren of trees. Seems the soil was actually very productive. Plus, you didn’t have to go to all the trouble of clearing the land. So, maybe it was that second reason after all.
Barren County is in the south-central section of Kentucky. It dates back to 1798, and today has about 44,500 people. It was settled by the Scots-Irish, which accounts for the county seat being named Glasgow.
In addition to Glasgow, the county also features communities such as:
- Bear Wallow
- Dry Fork
- Eighty Eight
- Goodnight
- Nobob
- Slick Rock
The newspaper is a weekly, dates back to 1882, and costs 50 cents.
Louisiana – Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
Picayune: n, adj: “something of little value, importance, or consequence.”
This is probably the paper that got this whole series of blog posts started. I mean, it’s the paper of record for NOLA, dates back to 1837, has a circulation over 80,000, and has received multiple Pulitzer Prizes. In other words, it’s big time – in spite of its seemingly belittling, very odd title.
Whence that title, though? Well, another definition of “picayune” was “a Spanish coin, worth half a real or one sixteenth of a dollar.” That also just so happened to be the original price of the paper, way back in 1837.
The official title of the paper is actually The Times-Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate. And that reflects several mergers, with the New Orleans Times-Democrat (1914) and Baton Rouge’s The Advocate (2018). Informally, it’s called the T-P [snicker].
Some firsts for the paper include:
- Society column
- Children’s pages
- Woman’s advice column
- Probably don’t need to say anything about the Big Easy.
What the paper famously ran after the Saints lost the Super Bowl
Honorable mention: The Town Talk (Alexandria)
Maine – The Weekly Packet (Blue Hill)
“A small, formatted unit of data sent across a digital network”? Nah. “A small closed container made of paper or plastic, containing a small amount of something”? Probably not. “A small vessel that carries mail, passengers, and goods regularly on a fixed route, especially on rivers or along coasts”? Yup, that’s it!
With the implicit idea being that said packet brought news from afar. Which would all make a ton of sense if this paper dated back to, say, 1837. Instead, we’re talking about 1960 here. Google AI claims that it’s a metaphor “to symbolize a regular delivery of local news, serving as the community's informational ‘mail boat’ arriving each week.”
The weekly claims a circulation of 2,200, and serves the Blue Hill, Brooklin, Brooksville, Sedgwick & Surry communities. We’re talking one peninsula over from Acadia National Park. So, in other words, pretty darn scenic.
Maryland – The Cecil Whig (Elkton)
Sounds very Regency to me.
Which, given the paper’s founding date of 1841, is not all that far off the mark. Seems one Palmer Chamberlain Ricketts wanted to boost the Whig party after the election of William Henry Harrison (Tippecanoe and Tyler too, you know), and so set up a printing press in his log cabin.
Later, Ricketts would be indicted for the murder of rival Amor T Forwood, publisher of the Cecil Democrat. Claiming self-defense, he would, however, be acquitted.
But who is this Cecil fellow? Well, as it turns out, Cecil is actually a county, the northeasternmost of all Maryland’s counties. It’s got a population of a little over 100,000, with Elkton (the county seat) having about 15,000 of those.
The paper’s published 2 days a week.
Massachusetts – The Daily Item (Lynn)
Well, let’s hope they have at least a couple. Could be a very short paper if they’re only covering the one thing.
This paper dates back to 1876, is published 6 days a week (no Sunday edition), and costs 2 dollars. It has a circulation of 16,100, and covers the state’s North Shore. You know, Nahant, Saugus, Swampscott, Peabody, Marblehead … basically, the Atlantic coast between Boston and the New Hampshire line.
Honorable mention: Wayland Town Crier
Michigan – Mining Journal (Marquette) / Daily Mining Gazette (Houghton)
Goin’ up to the ol’ UP for these 2. Yup, Yooper journalism at its finest.
If you’re not that familiar with the Upper Peninsula, there is indeed a lot of mining up there, overwhelmingly iron and copper. Logging and tourism are big as well. Not much else going on up there, I’m afraid – though the UP claims 30% of the state’s area, it has only 3% of its population.
Houghton is on the Keweenaw Peninsula, sort of a peninsula within a peninsula. It has a population of almost 8,400, and is considered the capital of Copper Country. The Daily Mining Gazette is indeed a daily, dates back to 1858, and has a circulation of 4,500.
You may have actually heard of Marquette. It’s the largest city on the UP (pop. 20,600), and is considered something of its capital. It’s right on Lake Superior, and is primarily known for shipping out iron ore. The Mining Journal is another daily, dates back to 1841, and has a circulation of 9,400 (11,100 for the weekend edition).
Minnesota – Red Wing Republican Eagle
There’s a little to unpack here. First, Red Wing is actually the name of a city. The rest of it is from the merger of 2 papers, the Daily Republican and the Daily Eagle. The 1st paper dates all the way back to 1857. The RWRE (not typing that again) comes out twice a week, and has a circulation of not quite 2,900 on Wednesdays and more than 20,000 on Saturdays.
As for the city, it has a population of 16,500, dates back to the 1850s, sits on the Mississippi River, and is officially part of the Minneapolis-St Paul Metropolitan Statistical Area. It’s named after a series of chiefs of the Dakota tribe. “Notable people” include 32 folks I’ve never heard of, including:
- Tams Bixby
- Torjus Hemmesveit
- Trapper Schoepp
- Phyllis Yes
Mississippi – Picayune Item
Combining the best features of the NOLA & Lynn MA papers …
Actually, in this case, Picayune just so happens to be the name of a town. It’s located in the very southernmost part of the state, and has almost 12,000 people, Hard to believe, but the town was actually named after the paper (see above), way back in the early 1880s. Wikipedia lists 24 “notable people” I’ve never heard of. They’re mostly athletes, with a few politicians thrown in for good measure, as well as a serial kiler.
The paper is a weekly, and dates back to 1904. It features hardhitting news articles such as:
- “Lt. Sean Talley achieves state certification”
- “SPCA secures $25,000 Grant to expand spay and neuter services”
- “Jacob Hoover takes home 3rd place in 4-H National Shooting Competition”
- “Kitten Rescued from Tree”
Okay, I made that last one up.
Honorable mention: Enterprise-Tocsin (Indianola)
Missouri – Unterrified Democrat (Linn)
I think we have a winner!
It’s a long story, but it all dates back to the Reconstruction era, right after the Civil War. I guess there were some terrified Democrats at the time (at least in their own minds, if nothing else). Well, one Democrat supporter, Lebbeus Zevely, took it upon himself to stand up to the Yankees and Carpetbaggers and start his own newspaper. The paper stayed in the Zevely family for just over 100 years, with them finally selling out in 1969. It’s a weekly, and has a circulation of 2,500.
Linn is the seat of Osage County, almost smack dab in the center of the state. The town dates back to 1844, and currently has a population of 1,350. It’s part of the Jefferson City Metropolitan Area. The county has more than its share of interestingly named “unincorporated communities,” including:
- Aud
- Loose Creek
- Folk
- Crook
- Frankenstein
Honorable mention: New Evening Whirl (St Louis)
Montana – Powder River Examiner (Broadus)
Slim pickins in this state of just over 1 million people. I always thought the Powder River sounded kinda funny though. Add that to Broadus, and we’ve got a real winner.
The town is not actually on the Powder River, but it is the seat of Powder River County. And, yes, the river does run through said county. We’re talking the southeasternmost corner of the state.
Broadus dates back only to 1900, and currently has a population of 450. It’s the site of an Indian Wars battle, as well as a productive gas and oil field.
The paper, a weekly, dates back to 1918. Previous incarnations were the Broadus Independent, the Olive Branch, and the Powder River County Examiner.
No comments:
Post a Comment