Celebrating Hill City, the gift of a newspaper

Hill City is celebrating its 150th birthday in February. Events are in the planning stages for a big birthday bash to be held this summer. 

The Hill City Prevailer News doesn’t quite go back that long, but a newspaper has served the area since the late 1880s.

The Black Hills Weekly Journal served Pennington County as long ago as 1878. The weekly publication morphed into the Rapid City Daily Journal and eventually the Rapid City Journal.

The area was likely served, too, by a paper known as the News, which began Dec. 3, 1879, published by A. W. Merrick and a partner named Burke. 

The paper was purchased in the spring of 1880 by Joseph Kubler and Avery D. Clark, who began publishing it each Saturday under the name Custer Chronicle. The first issue came out Sept. 11, 1880, and was a four-page paper that featured stories about the benefits of living in Custer and touted business opportunities in the area. Mining and railroad progress along with advertisements for a bank, blacksmith, carriage dealer, drug store and bakery were not uncommon. 

The paper’s name changed to the Custer Weekly Chronicle Feb. 1, 1890, and Kubler remained as its publisher until 1924. That paper is what readers now know affectionately as the Custer County Chronicle.

The first paper to serve Hill City specifically began in 1922. According to Library of Congress records, George Elmer was the publisher of the Hill City News from 1922-38. In 1938, Hal D. Wheaton took over publication of what would become the Hill City News and Black Hills Mining World, which served the town from 1938-43. 

It became the Hill City News in 1943 officially in 1938 and was published by  T. Gallagher.

It merged with the New Underwood Times and became known as the Hill City News and New Underwood Times, published by Jos. T. Gallagher, and served the communities until 1951. 

The first copy of the Hill City Prevailer was printed in June of 1970.

The front page read, “Announcing the Prevailer, - It is being sent to you with compliments of the JJ  Realty Co. While admittedly the prime purpose of this little paper is to advertise the JJ Realty company and its listings, we will include items of interest in the Black Hills.”

The front page headlines continued: “J.J. Realty Opens in Hill City.”

The story announced the formation of the company by John J. Gerken, who upon reading the story, lived in the Reno Gulch section of town.

The story about Gerken continued on page three, where readers learned he was a native of Gregory, was a father of five and had been summering in Hill City for a decade. Gerken  managed a bank and insurance agency and was president of the Hill City Chamber of Commerce. 

Next to the page three continuation of the story were several JJ Realty listings. 

These included a Rim Rock highway cabin for $4,600, a “fine small home” in Rapid City on East Philadelphia for $5,500, a 75-seat cafe in Hill City with frontage on Main Street for $25,000 and a lease on a turnkey souvenir shop in Hill City for $5,000.

Looking through more listings on that page, 12  acres of land with a large modern home on a good gravel road, only two miles east of Hill City was advertised for $20,000. It stated “good water, good road, good view and a good buy.”

A three bedroom home in Hill City was priced at $7,800. A lot of 160 acres located just a mile from either the Keystone Hill City road or Hwy. 385/16 had farm buildings, rolling hills, modern electricity and was bisected by the “famous 1880 Train” was selling for $48,000.

Back on the front page, a new regular feature in the Hill City Prevailer was touted as the “mining corner,” explaining Hill City was better known for tin than it was for gold.

It did list a couple of mining claims including Sunnyside, Union Hill, OK Lode, Gold Mountain, Crane, Burlington, Pay-Day, Woodchuck and Queen Bee.

The other front page headlines touted “Preliminary Planning on Spring Creek Sanitary District” and “Hills Realty Unit Formed.”

The Spring Creek story stated pollution in 1969 prompted a grassroots campaign of sorts to occur. The article said, “Representatives of seven different Hill City civic and fraternal groups met and spent two weeks visiting with friends and neighbors in the area to determine what the feeling in the community might be after the initial two-week period was over, and it was discovered that interest was very high. The original group was expanded to a 21 member citizens action committee, who proposed that the next step be taken.”

Two pictures of a television star graced the front page. One was of Jim Arnes from “Gunsmoke” alongside Bill Heckman, president of the Black Hills Central Railroad. Heckman brought the “Gunsmoke” star to Hill City to film two episodes of the television show. Arnes was also pictured alongside Sen. Frank Henderson of Hill City.

About 100 1880 Train crew and technicians spent four days filming the “Gunsmoke” episode near Custer. Of interesting note, this was the first time in the 16-year history of the show that “Gunsmoke” was filmed outside of the Los Angeles region. 

The first edition of the Hill City Prevailer also had an editorial column, which it noted was “open to those of the area who, having a thoughtful well-written idea can present their views.”

In this inaugural editorial column, the editor noted, “Right now, in our opinion, there is a growth potential unexcelled anywhere in the Hills.”

He called Hill City a “well established tourist center” that will continue to grow due to the, “recent completion of the road from Mount Rushmore down to 385-16.” 

People today know this road as Hwy 244. 

The editorial called the operation of the Stauter Lumber Mill a “boost” to Hill City, citing not only the weekly payroll, but the employment, which has brought “many fine folks to the area and housing is very tight. The editor signed off on the column, “‘We’re glad to be here.’”

Below the column, the tourist outlook for 1970 was proclaimed “good” due to “continued highway improvements, opening up additional miles of interstate highway across the state” and an aggressive advertising campaign by entities like the Old West Trail Promotions.

Perhaps the most notable headline of the paper comes on page two. It reads “Hill City to Open Library.” The story mentions Roland Coates as the head of the library board. Books were brought in by donation, and it was reported the Hill City Library would get more books from the state library due to its immediate affiliation. Stauter Lumber donated wood for the book shelves.

The entire fourth page of the first edition was devoted to an advertisement for JJ Realty and an article explaining why using a real estate professional is a good idea.

Vol. 1, No. 1 had no bylines indicating who reported or wrote any of the stories.

The Hill City Area Chamber of Commerce has created 150th Happy Birthday stickers featuring Smokey available at merchants throughout Hill City.

The entire Hill City Prevailer staff is excited to cover the events taking place to celebrate the 150th birthday of Hill City.