Top of page

Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper Pioche Daily Record (Pioche, Nev.) 1872-1876

View All Front Pages

About Pioche Daily Record (Pioche, Nev.) 1872-1876

In 1863, Paiutes disclosed to a Mormon missionary the location of silver in return for food and clothing in the vicinity of what later became Pioche, Nevada. Located in the Ely Mining District, the town was developed by San Francisco financier Francois Louis Alfred Pioche in 1868, who bought several mining claims and erected a smelter. In September of 1871, H.R. Pitchford started printing the city’s first newspaper, the Ely Record, from a tent. The most prosperous mining camp in the new Lincoln County, Pioche became the county seat in 1871. Within two years, the paper expanded from a weekly, to a triweekly, and finally, to the Pioche Daily Record, although by 1877 after a year of recession, it had been reduced to a weekly (the Pioche Weekly Record). When a new owner took over in 1900, he announced “Unlike most papers [the Lincoln County Record (as it was called from 1900 to 1905)] does not start out with the intention of running first in the interest of the public, but will be run in the interest of the Proprietor and what he can make out of it.” A prolonged recession from 1892 through 1904 saw most of the area’s mines close, and Pioche was virtually abandoned. In 1907, the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad completed a trunk line to Pioche from its freight terminus in Caliente, providing a much needed boost to local mining operations. Pioche proved remarkably resilient, surviving flash floods, fires, and the Great Depression; it became a major lead-zinc producer until those operations closed down by 1958, only to resume production again in the late 1960s. As the town and county’s primary newspaper, the Record, although it changed hands, political affiliations, and titles many times, has published continuously, except for a four-month suspension 1900. It was known as the Pioche Weekly Record in 1906-1908 and the Pioche Record in 1908-25. E. L. Nores, who purchased the paper in 1920, ran the Record for almost 40 years, retiring in 1958.

When the Record‘s main competitor, the Las Vegas Age began publication in 1905 with a larger circulation, the county commissioners decided to award it all county printing and job work. The editor of the Record not surprisingly, was enraged and commenced a series of personal attacks on the Age and the residents of Las Vegas, likening the Age to a mushroom fungi of uncertain life, possessing a readership of “floaters, the shiftless and reckless class.” The Record pounced on and mocked every printing error in the Age until the county commissioners reconsidered and rescinded their order. However, the Las Vegas Age ultimately recovered the county printing contract, and to add further insult to injury the county transferred it funds to the First State Bank of Las Vegas, Pioche no longer having a bank. The sectionalism dividing Lincoln County, fueled by Las Vegas’ growing political and business clout, made a division inevitable. When Pioche had recovered sufficiently to support its own bank in 1906, the deposit of county funds and the office of County Treasurer became the focal point for the debate. The Record maintained its hostility toward Las Vegas, seeking to keep the county’s government and treasury in Pioche. And when the state legislature finally passed the bill creating Clark County in July 1909 (most voters and politicians supported county division for simple logistical and fiscal reasons), the Record kept up its volleys, promoting Searchlight as the new seat of Clark County over its old nemesis Las Vegas.

With the county split a fait accompli, Lincoln County and its paper looked to its own interests again. With the resurgence of Pioche and the emergence of Caliente as an important rail terminus on the Salt Lake Line, the Record settled into its long life as the county newspaper, which continues to this day.

Provided By: University of Nevada Las Vegas University Libraries

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Pioche Daily Record (Pioche, Nev.) 1872-1876

Names

  • Jones, A. D.

Dates of Publication

  • 1872-1876

Created / Published

  • Pioche, Nev. : Pat Holland, -1876.

Headings

  • -  Pioche (Nev.)--Newspapers
  • -  Nevada--Pioche
  • -  United States--Nevada--Lincoln--Pioche

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Daily (except Mon.)
  • -  Vol. 5, no. 1 (Sept. 17, 1872)-v. 13, no. 49 (Nov. 12, 1876).
  • -  Publishers: Taylor & Holland, 1872; Holland & Co., 1872-1873; Holland, Berry & Booth, 1873-1874; Pat Holland, 1874-1875; Record Publishing Co., 1875-1876.
  • -  "Democratic." Cf. Lingenfelter, R.E. Newspapers of Nev.
  • -  Editor: A.D. Jones, 1870.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Index to the Pioche Record, card file at Southern office of Nev. Hist. Soc.
  • -  Pioche tri-weekly record 2474-0985 (DLC) 2015270825 (OCoLC)933612142

Medium

  • 9 volumes : illustrations (chiefly ads.) ; 51 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper
  • AN2.N3 P56

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn84022048

OCLC Number

  • 10267581

ISSN Number

  • 2472-1662

Preceding Titles

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.

The NEH awardee responsible for producing each digital object is presented in the Chronicling America page display, below the page image – e.g. Image produced by the Library of Congress. For more information on current NDNP awardees, see https://aj.sunback.homes/ndnp/listawardees.html.

For more information on Library of Congress policies and disclaimers regarding rights and reproductions, see https://aj.sunback.homes/homepage/legal.html

Cite This Item

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

Chicago citation style:

Pioche Daily Record Pioche, Nev. -1876. (Pioche, NV), Jan. 1 1872. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn84022048/.

APA citation style:

(1872, January 1) Pioche Daily Record Pioche, Nev. -1876. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn84022048/.

MLA citation style:

Pioche Daily Record Pioche, Nev. -1876. (Pioche, NV) 1 Jan. 1872. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn84022048/.