The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-08-27
PIONEER NEWSPAPER WOMAN.
How She Started a journal in a Min
ing Camp in Colorado.

Ia E AN 80 ~ E~0~
these city newspaperI women about
their work and read about the things
they do and the things they say, | al
ways think of the first newspaper
woman l ever saw. 1t was 20 years
ago last winter, when newspaper
women were not as common as they
are now. l was making my way down
through southern Colorado to Durango,
then a new camp, just started. Rumors
of gold in the La Plata hills were be-
ing circulated, and men were starting
for the camp here and there, to be
on the ground before the rush, which
was expected in the spring. The rail
road ended at Cumbres, up in the
Sangre de Chisto range, and I had to
push on on horseback. One day l
caught up with a mule team and a
bob sled. It was stuck in the snow,
and / hurried ahead to help them out.
To my establishment, l found a WON
an with the outfit. She was a bright,
cheerful little body, and she told me
that she was going into Durango to
start a daily paper. She had the press
and type in her outfit, and was max
ing the trip with two miners, one of
whom was her driver. Her name was
Caroline Westcott Romney, and she is
the sister-in-law Of Judge L. M. God
dard. lately of the supreme court of
Colorado
'tThat was a great trip. So devious
was the route that we crossed the
Navajo river 16 times and the San
Juan 80 times before the log cabins Of
Durango hove in sight. Sometimes
we crossed on the ice and sometimes
we went through, but Mrs. Romney
kept cheerful all through, and would
sing One More River to Cross She
was only anxious for the safety of her
type and presses. One night, cold and
hungry, we stopped at a wayside inn
of primitive type. We noticed that
the landlord, a sensational-looking
Mexican, was a walking arsenal. 1t
transpired afterward that a neighbor-
hood fued was on, and he had killed
three men within a month, and was
watching for a fourth. In the very first
issue of her paper Mrs. Romney was
obliged to chronicle the sudden death
of our quondam host. @
"Mrs. Romney had been running a
paper at Leadville when the rumors
of a new camp at Durango began to
come in. She packed up her type
and presses and started for the front
Ter in the dead Of winter. When we
reached Durango she could not rent
a building for love o money. She
hired men and began to put up a cabin.
Then a man who had been running a
half away, announced that he would
change his paper to a daily and date
it Durango. Mrs. Romney had not
made that trip from Leadville to be
bluffed in any such way as that. AS
soon as she heard Of her rivals de
fiance, she set up a little old-fashion'
ed Gordon hand press in the snow, and
got out a paper. 1t was about the size
of a pocket handkerchief, but it was
the first daily published in Durango
and from that time on it doomed Dur
ango in strictly western fashion. She
sent it broadcast, not only through the
state, but to every reading room; hote,
and depot in the United States, and sc
much attention did it attract to the
town that it mas often been said thai
she made Durango.
"She certainly knew how to hustle
Within four months she had enlarged
her paper three times. The RAILROAD
and telegraph got in during that time
The telegraph had only one wire work
ing at first, and, as the railroad hat
the call on that, Mrs. Romney coult
not get Associated Press dispatches
But she paid a.man in Denver $500
month to get the dispatches and sen
them to her, as he was able to get thu
use of the line. | believe she cleare'
not less than 81, 900, or $1,000 a mont
during the earlier months of her eS
perience.
Durango was a pretty lively kind Q
a town in those days. We ate stolel
steaks all the first winter. Cattl
thieves of Colorado, Utah, New Me-
leo, and Arizona rounded up cattle Il
four states, and sold it in Durango.
zone day a company of. militia fror
New Mexico came up there wit
requisition papers for a murderer
They were fred upon and a pitche
battle took place in the streets, whic
many a pioneer of the southwest ca
remember.
tsTho+ afternoon Mrs. ROmne cam