The Ghost Papers of the Frontier
A deep dive into the volatile, high-stakes, and often short-lived history of early Washington journalism—where printing presses were subsidized by political parties and fires frequently wiped out the record.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
In compliance with the desire of this association, I present here a brief history of the press of Washington from the introduction of the printing press to the present period. In 1852, the first number of the Columbian, a weekly journal, was published at Olympia by J. W. Wiley and Thos. F. McElroy. After twelve months, the name was changed to the Washington Pioneer. Inasmuch as Washington, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana were parts of Oregon until 1853, the early history of the press is deeply intertwined with that of Oregon. The history of the press in Seattle is particularly fraught; early attempts were often characterized by 'sickly existences' of a few weeks or months. During the great civil war, which injuriously affected many interests on the Pacific coast, several journals in Seattle failed for lack of support. Even in towns like Whatcom, which in 1858 saw a gold rush, the sudden influx of people brought with it printing presses, which were promptly abandoned as soon as the 'rush' died down. The newspaper men were among the first to abandon the sinking ship. One publisher, on his way to Victoria after his paper folded, famously said, 'Whatcom has gone in, and the Light has gone out!' It is extremely gratifying to note the examples of practical sympathy among members of the press, where editors often lent type and presses to rivals to keep the spirit of local reporting alive after disasters.
“Whatcom has gone in, and the Light has gone out!”
This 1889 account mirrors modern Seattle’s media landscape, where local news outlets struggle to stay afloat amidst economic volatility and the consolidation of power. It serves as a reminder that the 'precarious' nature of digital journalism today is just the latest chapter in a long history of Washington's boom-and-bust cycle.
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