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Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper Roosevelt County News (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1935-1940

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About Roosevelt County News (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1935-1940

The Wolf Point Herald began publication in 1913 after its founder, Charles M. Hanson, came to Wolf Point from Ray, North Dakota. Hanson ran the eight-page, six-column, weekly out of his home using a George Washington hand press before upgrading to new equipment and relocating in the aftermath of a fire. J. P. Weist took over as publisher in 1915 after Hanson became Wolf Point’s postmaster. With business growing, Weist soon hired C. L. Marshall as editor, and Marshall took over the paper in 1919, operating it for the next two decades.

The Herald focused on local agriculture, printing stories on wheat markets, livestock news, and other industry issues. The paper’s attitude on agriculture was hopeful, often predicting record harvests despite occasionally reporting on struggling businesses and other warning signs of the Great Depression. The Herald also promoted oil discoveries and development efforts in Montana and North Dakota, and it included regular columns, such as Great Northern Railroad Notes, a section dedicated to the activities of Great Northern employees and their families. As a paper with an independent viewpoint, it tended to maintain a neutral political stance in its coverage of local and national elections and developments. Although Wolf Point is one of the largest communities on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, the Herald rarely offered tribal news aside from announcements about fairs and reports about non-tribal land sales.

In 1935, Joseph Dolin, an experienced publisher who ran the Bainville Democrat and Medicine Lake Wave, launched a new paper in Wolf Point, the Roosevelt County News. The News and the Herald ran alongside each other for five years until Mr. and Mrs. Joe Dolin purchased the Herald in 1940 and merged it with the News to form the Herald-News. They sold it to Harry Downs and his partner Mike Vukelich in 1945, and the Downs family gained full ownership in 1960. Harry Downs, Jr. took over for his late father in 1974 and published the Herald-News for more than 20 years, selling to John and Kathie Stanislaw in 1999. Downs stayed on as publisher until 2007, and the Stanislaws operated the paper for two decades, publishing the last issue on May 9, 2019. The paper’s former staff, including Downs’ daughter, Darla, immediately began publishing the Northern Plains Independent.

The Downs family owned or worked at the Herald-News for over seven decades from 1945 to 2019. During that time, the paper maintained a commitment to reporting on community news in Wolf Point and covering topics important to Eastern Montana. The paper published stories on national and international events and state politics. It tended to focus on regional agriculture, local schools, and other local events and announcements. The Herald-News also gave increased attention to the Fort Peck Tribes, reporting on tribal elections, politics, and other tribal news. Downs passed away in 2018, and the Montana Newspaper Association inducted him into the Montana Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2022, joining his father who was inducted in 1999.

Provided By: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Roosevelt County News (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1935-1940

Dates of Publication

  • 1935-1940

Created / Published

  • Wolf Point, Mont. : Dolin Pub. Co., -1940.

Headings

  • -  United States--Montana--Roosevelt--Wolf Point

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  -v. 5, no. 34 (Jan. 11, 1940).
  • -  Began May 17, 1935. Cf. Gregory, W. Amer. newspapers, 1821-1936.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Merged with: Wolf Point herald, to form: Herald-news (Wolf Point, Mont.).
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 1, no. 17 (Sept. 19, 1935).
  • -  Wolf Point herald 2766-2853 (DLC)sn 86075272 (OCoLC)13984489
  • -  Herald-news (Wolf Point, Mont.) (DLC)sn 86075271 (OCoLC)13984691

Medium

  • 5 v. : ill.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn86075273

OCLC Number

  • 13984451

ISSN Number

  • 2997-8548

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Roosevelt County News Wolf Point, Mont. -1940. (Wolf Point, MT), Jan. 1 1935. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86075273/.

APA citation style:

(1935, January 1) Roosevelt County News Wolf Point, Mont. -1940. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86075273/.

MLA citation style:

Roosevelt County News Wolf Point, Mont. -1940. (Wolf Point, MT) 1 Jan. 1935. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn86075273/.