Dan Westesen looks over a bound edition of The Populist, a Ridgway newspaper that published from 1894 to 1904. He and his wife, Diane, recently digitized a four-year archive of the paper so it could be added to the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. Photo courtesy Diane Westesen
STORIES WORTH SAVING
In 1896 ads for sewing machines and cities to stop at on the road to the West Coast dotted the pages of The Populist newspaper, a Ridgway publication that ran from 1894-1904. Photographs were rare, if they were used at all, and precious metal trading prices graced the tops of the pages in the historic mining community. A yearly subscription was listed as just $2.
Such a paper could easily be lost in time, and some of its records still are, but thanks to the efforts of local couple Diane and Dan W...
