Thankful for the support

The week before Thanksgiving, Douglas County commissioners recognized The Record-Courier for 120 years of service to the community.

Formed from two other publications, The Courier and the Gardnerville Record, The R-C possesses one of the oldest continuous names in the state and in two years will celebrate the centennial of its banner featuring the Carson Range.

We’re thankful to the county for its interest in helping us celebrate our continued efforts here.

A lot of the credit for the newspaper’s longevity goes to one of its longest and best leaders, Bert Selkirk, whose portrait hangs in our office.

Selkirk learned to set type by hand as a young man and after moving to Carson Valley for his health plied his trade at both the Courier and the Record, before the Gardnerville paper’s founder threatened to hit him with an iron bar.

After the Record burned down in 1904, its owners purchased The Courier. It gets a little complicated here, because Selkirk actually co-owned the paper for a brief spell before the Springmeyers purchased it. Selkirk was back as sole proprietor in 1908 and lasted until 1944, surviving The Great Depression and almost making it through two world wars.

We’ve heard from old-timers that no matter where Selkirk was in the production process in that two-story white building, which still stands on Eddy Street, he would come out and talk to them.

That building, built for The Courier in 1899, was not just offices and printing plant for the newspaper, but also the home for Selkirk and his family.

We’re honored to continue that tradition as best we can as we chug along through the 21st Century, as we did the 19th and 20th.

But like Selkirk and the hundreds of other R-C staffers past and present, we are all passing through. We are fortunate to be able to chronicle this place and perhaps contribute to making it a little bit better along the way.