One of the joys of doing this blog is digging around for tidbits of information that other people are not writing about. I am an extensive user of our local libraries as well as the internet. And, while the internet is full of information, across millions of websites, the accuracy of that information always needs to be evaluated. I’ve also found that often many websites mostly just repeat each other. For me, after a while the same stories, even with some variations, start getting a little old.
Historic Oregon Newspapers website
One resource that I’ve enjoyed exploring is the Historic Oregon Newspapers website, which is the result of the Oregon Digital Newspaper Program at the University of Oregon. The goal of this program is to digitize historic Oregon newspapers and make them freely available to anyone. As the screen shot above shows, the project is digitizing newspapers from across the state, including Cottage Grove.
First edition of the Bohemia Nugget, January 20, 1899.
At the turn of the last century, the Bohemia Nugget was the local, weekly newspaper in Cottage Grove. The tag line under the title says it is “Devoted to the Mining, Lumber, and Farming interests of this community, to good government, and hustling for a living.” The first edition of the Bohemia Nugget was printed in January 20, 1899 and is available on the Historic Oregon Newspapers website.
Clip from the Dec. 25, 1907 Bohemia Nugget
As of now, the most recent edition is from December 25, 1907. Cottage Grove residents at that time were getting dressed up for a Masque Ball at the Armory where some very nice prizes were going to be given away for those in the best costumes.
It is fun to read through the old papers, as what they report on, and the reporting style they use, is very different than today. The website also comes with a search engine, allowing you to search all newspapers at once, or just a specific newspaper.
I’ve had a lot of fun poking through old Nuggets to learn about the history of Cottage Grove and the surrounding communities. The Oregon Historic Newspapers website is also a good resource for anyone doing family history research within Oregon, as the collection is getting quite extensive.
My South Lane 
Wow, I’ve never heard of it. Someone must have stored the paper all these years–amazing.
From the “Historic Oregon Newspapers” site, it looks like the paper was only published from 1899 to 1907. Using your link, click on the 1st image page of the paper and find the link chain near the top. Click on ” > Bohemia Nugget. >” to get an overview page where it gives the dates of publication as 1899-1907. True?
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Good catch, Mel. I hadn’t found the overview page (http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96088074/). It does say that the last issue published was Dec. 25, 1907. I have no reason to doubt that. The number of newspapers they’ve worked on is pretty phenomenal (I count 94!).
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I looked at the Historic Oregon Newspaper website. What a change from looking stuff up on micro-fiche (sp?)!!!!! Remember that?!
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Oh yeah, this doesn’t even compare to micro-fiche.
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Ok, but no hyphen.
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BTW, love your new “About Colette” pic!
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Thanks!
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Some sort of interesting stuff + a date discrepancy for the Nugget.
From the Wikipedia page for the Cottage Grove Sentinel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottage_Grove_Sentinel
“The Sentinel bought the competing Cottage Grove Leader in 1918. The Leader had previously combined with the Bohemia Nugget, which ran from 1889 to 1907.[3]”
From reference [3] (Purportedly the Sentinel–July 14, 2010. Also, the long URL contains http://www.cgsentinel.)
http://goo.gl/1vnqDL
“The Bohemia Nugget was originally a Friday weekly published in Cottage Grove from 1889 to 1907, when it was consolidated with the Cottage Grove Leader. After years of competing, The Leader was finally bought out by it’s nemesis, the Cottage Grove Sentinel in 1918.”
The image of the Jan 20, 1899 Nugget front page clearly has Vol. I on it, so the 1889 date, as stated in the Sentinel article, is wrong.
Note: The Wikipedia article and its reference says the Sentinel was established in 1889, 10 years before the Nugget.
For the Cottage Grove Leader, I found this link at the Library of Congress:
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn96088075/
It shows the Leader’s dates as 1905-1915.
Well, this is enough info about the Bohemia Nugget to do me for the rest of my life; it should make me a hit a parties.
P.S.
As a kid, I actually worked for the Sentinel. I “stuffed” papers on Wed night and, one summer, cast molten lead into the bars used by the linotype machines. “What the hell is a linotype machine?” I can hear you all ask.
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Hey, thanks for doing all the background research. 🙂 I was wondering what followed the Nugget as surely a town wouldn’t go without a newspaper. I’m sure this will be more fodder for some post in the distant future.
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