The ''Headlight-Herald'' is a weekly paper published in Tillamook,

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, United States, since 1888. It is published on Tuesdays by

Country Media, Inc. Country Media, Inc. is an American media and web design company based in Salem, Oregon, which owns 10 community newspaper properties in Oregon and one in California. The company previously owned newspapers in the West North Central states. His ...

and has a circulation of 6,621. It is the

newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major national newspaper with large newspaper circulation, circulation whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered authoritative and independent; they are thus "newspapers of record by reputation" and i ...

for

Tillamook County Tillamook County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,390. The county seat is Tillamook. The county is named for the Tillamook people or Killamook people, a Native American trib ...

History

''Tillamook Headlight''

On June 8, 1888, the ''Tillamook Headlight'' was first published with C. E. Wilson as publisher and J. E. Edwards as editor. It was the first newspaper published in Tillamook County. The name is a reference to the

Tillamook Rock Light Tillamook Rock Light (known locally as Terrible Tilly or just Tilly) is a deactivated lighthouse on the northern Oregon Coast of the United States. It is located approximately offshore from Tillamook Head, and south of the mouth of the Columbi ...

off the shore of the

Tillamook Head Tillamook Head is a high promontory on the Pacific coast of northwest Oregon in the United States. It is located in west-central Clatsop County, approximately 5 mi (8 km) southwest of Seaside. The promontory forms a steep rocky bluff ...

. The first issue was sold at auction to C. B. Hadley for $12. The second copy was sold for 5¢. Theodore Steinhilber became editor and publisher in 1889. In August that year, W. F. D. Jones became the owner. B. C. Lamb became a co-owner in December. At that time paper was wealthy from publishing timber notices. It published more notices of applications for entry of land under the

Timber and Stone Act The Timber and Stone Act of 1878 in the United States sold timberland in surveyed public lands of the United States within the states of California, Oregon, and Nevada, and in the Washington Territory. The legislation specifically noted that milita ...

than any other paper in Oregon or Washington. The paper was 18 pages for a town of 500 people, making it the largest U.S. paper by size in proportion to the population it served. In 1891, Thomas Coates ran the paper for a year. In 1895, the Tillamook Headlight Company formed with Jones as president. He edited the paper until he was succeeded by Englishman Fred C. Baker in 1896. He ran the paper until selling out in 1920 to Leslie Harrison and Harold Hamstreet, son of the owner of the ''

Sheridan Sun ''The Sun'' was the newspaper for Sheridan, Oregon, United States. The paper was published weekly on Wednesdays. ''The Sun'' served the West Yamhill Valley communities of Sheridan, Willamina, and Grand Ronde in Yamhill and Polk counties. H ...

''. At that time it was considered one of the best paying weeklies in the state. Two years later the paper was sold to Eugene Crossby. By December 1922, the paper was reorganized with Harrison as publisher and Wray Stuart as publisher and manager. Baker continued as an editorial writer at the ''Headlight'' until 1925. That year A. L. Mallory became editor. He was succeeded in 1927 by Roy Blodgett. In 1928, Irl S. McSherry and George E. Martin, former owners of the ''McMinnville Telephone Register'', bought the ''Headlight'' from Blodgett''.'' The paper was later owned by Thomas Walpole and D. A. DeCook.

''Tillamook Herald''

In 1889, the ''Western Watchtower'' was founded as second newspaper in Tillamook County. For about a year the paper was jointly owned by J. L. Johnson and Cato Sullivan. The paper ceased within two years and the printing plant was acquired by in 1892 by John J. Stoddard and A. G. Reynolds who started the ''Tillamook'' ''Advocate''. In 1894, T. B. Handley became editor. The name was changed to the ''Tillamook'' ''Herald'' in 1896 by R. M. Watson, who had purchased the paper from George A. Edmunds. Watson sold his nephew Rollie W. Watson a half interest. In 1907, Charles A. Dolan and J. L. Murphy purchased the ''Herald.'' They turned it back to Rollie W. Watson a year later. He operated the paper for a few months until N. T. Pentreath became publisher, who quit after a few months. Watson sold the paper in 1908 to C. E. Trombley. He published the paper for 15 years until selling it in August 1923 to Allan McComb and Fred T. Mellinger. A year later McComb sold his interest to Arne Rae, who retired in 1929.

''Headlight-Herald''

The ''Headlight'' and the ''Herald'' merged in 1934 to form the ''Headlight-Herald,'' with Thomas Walpole and D. M. DeCook as publishers. In 1960, Elsie W. DeCook sold the paper to E.C. McKinney and her son Vern McKinney (owners of ''

The Hillsboro Argus ''The Hillsboro Argus'' was a twice-weekly newspaper in the city of Hillsboro, Oregon, from 1894 to 2017, known as the ''Washington County Argus'' for its final year. The ''Argus'' was distributed in Washington County, Oregon, United States. First ...

'') and Philip N. Bladine (owner of the ''McMinnville Telephone-Register''). The ''Headlight-Herald'' was sold in 1973 to Dave Juenke, Walter Taylor and Lee Irwin. In 1980, Juenke sold the paper to Scripps-Ifft Newspapers Inc. The company sold the newspaper to Swift-Pioneer Publishing Co. in 1983. In April 2007, the newspaper was purchased by

, along with ''

The News Guard The ''Lincoln County Leader'' is a weekly newspaper based in Newport, Oregon, United States. It was formed in January 2024 by the merger of the ''Newport News-Times'' and ''Lincoln City News Guard'', both published by Country Media, Inc. The ne ...

'' in Lincoln City. Those two papers had previously been owned by Oregon Coast Newspapers LLC since February 2003.

References

External links

''Headlight-Herald''
(official website) {{Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association 1888 establishments in Oregon Newspapers published in Oregon Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association Newspapers established in 1888 Tillamook, Oregon