Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Rocky Mountain News

In celebration of its 150th anniversary the Rocky Mountain News is posting one important front page a day on their website, until there is a collection of 150. The first one was obviously the first issue, then two that focused on the gold rush in Colorado. The last three days though have been Civil War related.


First was the January 12, 1861 edition that talked about South Carolina's secession. Then on April 18, 1861 there was the firing on Fort Sumter. Today's was the April 10, 1862 edition that told of the battle at Glorietta Pass in New Mexico.

These are interesting editions to read partly because this is my town but also because you can really see how removed Denver was from the rest of the world. The Sumter news took 6 days to arrive and then it was only that the firing had started, not that the fort was surrendered. The secession news took much longer, roughly 3 weeks. The Glorietta news took about 2 weeks to arrive.

I'll be interested to see what other Civil War news cracks the top 150. I'm guessing there will be something on the Sand Creek Massacre and Lincoln's assassination. Besides that I'm not sure what other editions might make the cut. What's nice about the Rocky Mountain News site is that they offer the front pages in pdf so you can read the entire page and see all the news that made the cut that day.

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