Chronicle turns 140

This Friday, Sept. 11, the Custer County Chronicle will celebrate 140 years of continuous business serving the readers and advertisers of this area and beyond.
This makes the Chronicle the oldest, continuously-operated newspaper and business in the Southern Black Hills.
There will be an open house at the newspaper from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the exact day of the newspaper’s founding 140 years ago. People may stop in, meet the staff and share in some refreshments.
Present employees are general manager/reporter  Jason Ferguson who has been at the newspaper for nearly 20 years; reporter Ron Burtz, two years; graphic artist Joshua Najacht, six years; receptionist/record-keeper Jeanne Feurstenburg, six years; marketing manager Kate Najacht, six years; driver Paul TerMeer, 10 years; and owners (publisher) Charley and (editor) Norma Najacht, nearly 21 years.
The first edition of the newspaper was published Saturday, Sept. 11, 1880, in a small newspaper shop in Custer by its first editor and owner Joseph Kubler. 
Read more about Kubler and succeeding owners in this edition of the Chronicle. Current owners since December 1999 are Charley and Norma Najacht.
“We invite you to stop in to visit with us and share in some refreshments. There will be drawings for free newspaper subscriptions, as well as discounted subscriptions that day only,” Charley said. 
The open house will be held at the newspaper’s office at 522 Mt. Rushmore Road. The 1890 building was purchased by the Najachts in June 2001.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places Jan. 28, 2004, and is one of the city’s oldest buildings.
The Custer County Chronicle is the official legal newspaper for Custer City, Custer County, towns of Pringle, Buffalo Gap, Fairburn and Hermosa and Custer and Elk Mountain School Districts. 

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