The Chitina Leader (Chitina, Alaska)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
554 issues from 1910 to 1921, published in Chitina, Alaska, digitised for Chronicling America.
The Chitina leader was started on September 24, 1910 by Harry and Will Steel, who were owners of the Cordova Daily Alaskan. The first issue of the Leader was released to coincide with the completion of the railroad from Cordova to Chitina. Harry Steel was one the first to take the train to Chitina. To produce the Leader, Steeland his brother would commute from their printing shop in Cordova to Chitina. In a special edition on November 12, 1910, the paper trumpeted the completion of a trail from Chitina to Willow Creek that connected with the Valdez to Fairbanks trail. The Leader argued that the new trail connecting with Chitina was far superior to the old and “in the face of all opposition, the travel will be directed this way, as there isn’t a better road in the North.” The Leader sent 1,000 copies of this special edition to every camp in Alaska and coastal towns along the West Coast.
O. E. Bennett was listed as the city editor for The Chitina Leader until 1911 and was relentlessly optimistic about Chitina, writing in a December 10, 1910 editorial that with the increasing population Chitina would soon “blossom forth into a full-fledged city of substantial importance.” Bennett predicted that the coming summer would herald the start of Chitina’s major growth and that the Copper River Valley, once developed, would be “uneclipsable” [sic]. The same editorial vehemently denounced territorial delegate James Wickersham for his opposition to private development of railroads in…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Chitina, Alaska, United States
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- 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.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress