The Jefferson County Commission has agreed to support a project that would digitize and make available county newspapers dating from 1885-1925.
The Jefferson County Museum Board has identified 16 newspapers published in Jefferson County during that time, and those include the Basin Progress, the Lump City Minor in Clancy, the Montana Sunlight out of Whitehall, the Sentinel from Boulder and the Wickes Pioneer, among others, to include The Boulder Monitor.
And while many counties and localities in Montana, and across the country, have made digital access available, there is not one historic Jefferson County newspaper available online, said Jamie Guenther, Jefferson County Museum Board Trustee.
“Truly, newspapers are the premier source of historical information,” said Guenther at the April 20 Commission meeting.
The Museum Board had come to the Commission to ask for $11,740 to create a searchable database of the 28,000 pages from the 16 historic Jefferson County newspapers.
The Museum Board has invested $5,000 toward the effort and has completed the digitization portion of the project.
The $11,740 one-time payment would allow the pages to be loaded and stored on the online platform, “Montana Newspapers,” maintained by the Montana Historical Society, said Guenther.
While digitized, the 28,000 pages are not currently searchable, said Guenther.
Currently, those wanting to access these historic sources must travel to the Montana Historical Society in Helena and look through them, said Guenther.
Once uploaded into this platform, individuals can enter search words to find the information they are seeking easily and in their own homes, if desired, she said.
This platform would allow the Museum to better fulfill its mission, as well as be a resource for teachers and students, those interested in genealogy and more, said Guenther.
To illustrate how easily it works, Museum Director Melody Pesta typed in a search word, “Wortman,” on the Montana Newspapers site, and found the wedding announcement for Commission Chairman Leonard Wortman’s parents in the July 22,1938 of the Madison Valley News.
Pesta said both county newspapers, The Boulder Monitor and the Whitehall Ledger, as well as the two high schools, Whitehall and Jefferson, support the project.
“I think it’s a heck of a good program,” said Wortman.
After some discussion on where and how the project could be funded, the Commission and Museum Board decided to add it as a line item in its upcoming annual budget request.
