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The Rocky At 150 Years


  A cheer went up along Cherry Creek in the night. William Newton Byers, 28, and a crew of three printers cranked out the first edition of the Rocky Mountain News, beating its very first competitor, The Cherry Creek Pioneer, to the streets of Denver by 20 minutes.

Colorado had its first newspaper. 		  On April 23, 2009, the Rocky will mark its 150th birthday. Each day the paper publishes between now and the anniversary, we will reprise 150 historic front pages and recount some of the important - and obscure - events in the paper's and in Colorado's history. This period will include the state's second Democratic National Convention and also the City of Denver's 150th anniversary.

The News first published as an evening weekly. 		  The Rocky went on to become one of the leading newspapers in the country and an integral part of the lives of Coloradans. Since 1926 it has been part of the Scripps newspaper chain and media family. It has been a rich and colorful 150 years, as you will see.

Read the stories and be sure to click on the PDF links below and in the stories to take a close look at the featured front pages. 		 


Today's feature:

February 27, 1978: DCPA's mixed debut

Front page from February 27, 1978 Michael Madigan, Special to the Rocky

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts did for music and theater what Apollo 11 did for moonwalking - it elevated the arts in Colorado's capital to a place it had not been before.

 

 

October

 

November

 

December

 

January

 

February

   

The Rocky @ 140

In 1999 we celebrated 140 years of existence and reflected on the path we took to get there. Read the stories below for an in-depth history of Colorado's oldest newspaper.

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From the Editor

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Front page PDFs