About Hyder Alaska miner. [volume] (Hyder, Alaska) 1919-1923
Hyder, Alaska (1919-1923)

The Hyder Alaska Miner, Hyder weekly Miner, and Hyder weekly herald

The Hyder Alaska Miner was started on October 24, 1919, by W. R. Hull. The Miner was a four-page weekly that urged people to "boost for Hyder all the time." Hull called Hyder the "Fastest Growing Town in the North" and told his readers to send their copies to their friends after they were done with it. True to its name, the Hyder Alaska Miner primarily reported on local news in Hyder and developments at the various mines nearby.

Hull argued strongly for improved fire protections for Hyder, particularly in the wake of a small fire in 1921 that destroyed several buildings. Sanitation and cleanliness were also constant drumbeats in his editorials, and Hull was a strong promoter of clean up week. He argued that the best advertisement for Hyder would be a town that was "cleaned-up, painted-up, and planted-up."

Echoing the racist "Yellow Peril" fearmongering of the time, Hull cheered a decision by the neighboring town of Stewart "debarring Orientals from entry into their section of the district" in the February 13, 1920 issue. Hull called it "an act which it would be well for the citizens of Hyder to emulate." He advocated for Hyder to adopt a similar policy, writing that "The Miner ... is suggesting that if any more representatives of the Yellow Peril land here they be shown the way to climb back up the gang plank."

Hull suffered from ongoing health problems and several issues were shortened or skipped until he suspended the publication on March 26, 1923. The plant was leased to Charles F. Sandford, previously editor of The Nome Daily Nugget, who released the new publication, the Hyder Weekly Miner in October of 1923. According to Evangeline Atwood and Lew Williams, Jr., in Bent Pins to Chains: Alaska and its Newspapers (2006), Sandford suspended the publication in the summer of 1924 to go prospecting. When he returned, he changed the name to the Hyder Weekly Herald and ran it until December 1, 1934, when also suffering from poor health, he permanently discontinued the paper and moved to Seattle to live with family. In his final issue, Sandford admonished the people of Hyder to "hold fast their faith in the future of the Hyder mineral district."

Provided by: Alaska State Library Historical Collections