About Daily prospector bulletin. (Valdez, Alaska) 1905-1911
Valdez, Alaska (1905-1911)

The Alaska Prospector, Valdez Weekly Prospector, The Valdez Miner, The Valdez Miner and Weekly Prospector, Valdez Daily Prospector, and Daily Prospector Bulletin

First published February 13, 1902, in Valdez, and edited by H.H. Hildreth, (former editor of Sitka's The Alaskan, along with businessmen Will H. Craray and Joseph Bourke, The Alaska Prospector absorbed The Valdez News in June 1907, and continued publishing until 1908. Judge James Wickersham, in A Bibliography of Alaskan Literature, incorrectly lists the Alaska Prospector as "The Weekly Alaska Prospector."

True to its title, the Alaska Prospector provided news of gold strikes in Tanana Valley and started its run with a mere 500 copies. Its first publisher block listed Hildreth as "Quill Pusher," Craray as "Ink Slinger," and Bourke as "Walking Delegate." The popularity of the Alaska Prospector owed a great deal to its advertising within its pages. According to Wickersham, on August 20, 1908, the Alaska Prospector changed its publishing frequency and name to the Valdez Weekly Prospector, which it remained until August 1, 1912, at which point the paper briefly became The Valdez Miner and then The Valdez Miner and Weekly Prospector from August 5-25, 1912. A concurrent paper, the Valdez Daily Prospector, ran until May 18, 1918, although sources are inconclusive regarding a beginning date: Alaska Newspapers on Microfilm 1866-1998 cites 1905, yet the earliest existing reel dates to June 15, 1908. Additionally, there was a Daily Prospector Bulletin that ran from around 1905 to 1911, that Alaska Newspapers on Microfilm 1866-1998 lists as a concurrent edition of the Valdez Daily Prospector.

Provided by: Alaska State Library Historical Collections