Top of page

Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper The Homer Homesteader (Homer, Alaska) 194?-19??

View All Front Pages

About The Homer Homesteader (Homer, Alaska) 194?-19??

The Homer Homesteader first appeared on April 14, 1944, and was Homer’s first commercial newspaper. The Homesteader was a two-page newssheet that used a cursive font and featured many hand-drawn illustrations. The paper was produced on a mimeograph machine by William R. Benson, a businessperson in Homer. Unreliable shipping to Homer meant that printing supplies did not always arrive on time, and the Homesteader had to borrow paper from locals to print issues on several occasions.

Benson was a relentless promoter of Homer and eternally optimistic about the city’s potential. He argued, in the April 28, 1947 issue, that “there is a time in the history of every Alaskan town, when it either surges ahead and developes[sic] into a live community, or degenerates into a ghost city.” Benson proposed and promoted developments to avoid the latter of those options. Among the things he advocated for were a greenhouse, the digging of deep wells to provide water, reliable electric service, and the development of the nearby coal veins.

His calls for change earned some criticism from other citizens, but he countered in the September 22, 1947 issue that these complainers were “poor hapless souls, who spend their idle hours picking to pieces someone who is trying to do something constructive.” It seems that much of Benson’s campaigning worked. By the time Benson suspended publication in December of 1949, many of the improvements he had argued for had been realized.

Provided By: Alaska State Library Historical Collections

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Homer Homesteader (Homer, Alaska) 194?-19??

Dates of Publication

  • 194?-19??

Created / Published

  • Homer, Alaska : W.R. Benson

Headings

  • -  Homer (Alaska)--Newspapers
  • -  Alaska--Homer
  • -  United States--Alaska--Homer

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 3, no. 13 (July 22, 1946).

Medium

  • v.

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn97060092

OCLC Number

  • 38123881

ISSN Number

  • 2995-3030

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:

The Homer Homesteader Homer, Alaska 194?-19??. (Homer, AK), 194?. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn97060092/.

APA citation style:

(194?) The Homer Homesteader Homer, Alaska 194?-19??. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn97060092/.

MLA citation style:

The Homer Homesteader Homer, Alaska 194?-19??. (Homer, AK) 194?. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn97060092/.