About North Park union. (Walden, Larimer County, Colo.) 1896-19??
Walden, Larimer County, Colo. (1896-19??)

North Park Union

The North Park Union, "A Local Journal Devoted to the Best Interests of the North Park County," was founded in July 1896 by the Union Publishing Company. The paper's first editor was F.W. Ott, who was also the publisher and proprietor of The Laramie Times. The first issue of the Union featured a two column "resume of Business Enterprises and Professions Represented in Our Little City," boosting the little city of Walden, Colorado. Walden was founded in 1888 in the isolated placer gold fields of northern Colorado. At its founding, the official population was 64, but by the time that the North Park Union issued its first newspaper, the town had grown to 300 "peace-loving, law-abiding, progressive and enterprising" citizens.

A fire in December 1896 destroyed four principal buildings in Walden, including that out of which the Union operated; however, nearly all the stock was saved. Ott sold the paper to J.O. Mosman in January 1899, and in the following month, he put out an issue that the Ft. Collins The Weekly Courier described as "full of stories of storms, of snow, of cold weather and suffering," printed on paper bags cut open, "indicating lack of communication with the outside world." By January 1900, the North Park Union was sold to a new editor, J.K.P. McCallum, whose sons A.B. and Jean McCallum were publishers. Once more, the office of the Union was nearly destroyed by fire, and the operations moved to a new location across the street. The McCallums enlarged the paper to six pages, three pages of which were printed at home.

Eugene A. Anderson took over the North Park Union in April 1902 upon the retirement of McCallum. The Weekly Courier reported that "the first number of the Union, issued by Mr. Anderson... gives indubitable proof that he is a wide awake newspaper man of experience, and that, given health and strength, he will make the paper a winner." In 1905, the Routt County Courier printed that Anderson announced a boycott against the Union, reporting that "a number of his subscribers and advertisers have withdrawn their patronage because the editor claimed the liberty of running his own way and refused to print a write up that would show the popularity (or unpopularity) of certain townsmen." Health and strength were not long for Anderson, who died at age 32 in April 1907. His father, A.M. Anderson, once-owner of The Delta Independent and publisher of the Park County Bulletin, took up publication of the Union, and by July he had leased it to John A. Kane from Laramie, Wyoming. However, within three months of taking over the Union, Kane disappeared and left the affairs of the paper in bad condition. The North Park Union seems to have folded in 1907, according to Colorado Newspapers: A History & Inventory, 1859-2000 by Jane C. Harper, Craig W. Leavitt and Thomas J. Noel.

Provided by: History Colorado