About The Arvada enterprise. (Arvada, Colo.) 1908-1970
Arvada, Colo. (1908-1970)

Arvada Enterprise

Located in Jefferson County, Colorado, the town of Arvada was first platted in 1880. Ute Indians and the Arapaho and Cheyenne peoples originally inhabited the area, and white settlement of the region began as early as the 1850s with the discovery of gold. Arvada, officially incorporated in 1904 and now a major suburb of Denver, developed into a residential and commercial hub for agriculture and was once known as the "Celery Capital of the World."

The Arvada Enterprise printed its first issue on July 3, 1908, under John F. White, a Methodist minister, who "decided that the Arvada community was not receiving the newspaper guidance and quality that he felt it should have" (The Arvada Enterprise, June 1, 1933). J. F. White sought to publish the paper with "the tendency to uplift" and the aim "to work early and late to promote the interest of our business men and never say a disparaging word of any of them, and stay by old Jefferson county and its growth to the very last" (The Arvada Enterprise, July 3, 1908). White was joined by T. S. Knapp, and together, the "sedate preacher and hustling real estate man" printed a "newsy, well edited" paper (The Colorado Transcript, July 16, 1908).

In 1911, Thad S. Sutton leased the paper and took over the editorial reins of the Enterprise. Sutton "brought to the newspaper a more complete newspaper training, and really started the Enterprise in bigger and better things" (Arvada Enterprise, June 1, 1933). On April 17, 1913, the Enterprise was issued under the ownership and editorship of Mr. W. W. Moberly, who wrote:

In taking up the work of publishing the Enterprise we are firmly convinced that a live town is entitled to the services of a live newspaper…We do not enter this field with any idea of reforming the world or teaching the people a whole lot of things which they are presumed not to know. What we will attempt to do will be to publish a clean, reliable, readable, newsy paper (The Arvada Enterprise, April 17, 1913).

Concerning political matters, the Enterprise, which was listed as a Prohibition publication in the 1909 edition of N.W. Ayer & Son’s American Newspaper Annual, planned to "await the issues as they may develop and after intelligent and careful weighing of matter [would] give its support to those which appeal to its judgment as being reasonable, just and for the best interest of the people" (Arvada Enterprise, April 17, 1913). Moberly was described as a "versatile politician, being either a Republican or a Democrat, whatever looked the best at the time" (The Jefferson County Republican, September 9, 1920).

Moberly published the Enterprise until 1920, when he sold it to J. S. Flanagan and his sons. Flanagan only stayed with the paper until 1921, when it was purchased by L. P. Kennedy. Kennedy turned around and sold the paper to Russell L. Gorrell in May 1923. Under Gorrell’s long tenure, the paper reached more paid subscribers than in any period of its history, "[a]nd why not? He is giving the folks of Arvada a gosh durned good newspaper" (The Craig Empire Courier, October 11, 1933).

Gorrell died in November 1940, but his widow, Hazel Gorrell, and their son Lloyd continued to publish the paper. In 1944, Lloyd Gorrell went into military service; Vancil "Pete" Smith and Roswell Graves leased the Enterprise until he returned from service in 1946. Lloyd again assumed the editorship and ownership of the Enterprise and published the paper until April 1970, when it was sold to Harry Green, Jr., and the Enterprise was merged into the The Arvada Citizen (Colorado Newspapers: A History & Inventory, 1859-2000, Jane C. Harper, Craig W. Leavitt, and Thomas J. Noel, 2014).

Provided by: History Colorado