  FRONTIER SCOUT. Capt. E. G. Adams, Editor. LIBERTY AND UNION. Lieut. C. H. Champney, Publisher Vol. 1. FORT RICE, D. T., AUGUST 10, 1865 No. 9. FRONTIER SCOUT. Capt. E. G. Adams, Editor. LIBERTY AND UNION. Lieut. C. H. Champney, Publisher Vol. 1. FORT RICE, D. T., AUGUST 10, 1865 No. 9. As early as 1853 a printing press is said to have been at the St. Joseph mission station, site of the present town of Walhalla, but there is no evidence that the press was actually used there. The first confirmed North Dakota printing was done on a press which Company I of the 30th Wisconsin Volunteers brought to Fort Union in June 1864. In July of that year a small newspaper, the Frontier Scout, made its appearance at the fort, and extant issues name the Company as "proprietors" and identify (Robert) Winegar and (Ira F.) Goodwin, both from Eau Claire but otherwise unknown, as publishers. With its early North Dakota newspapers the Library of Congress has a facsimile reprint of the Frontier Scout, volume 1, number 2 (the first extant issue), dated July 14, 1864. The Library's earliest original specimen of North Dakota printing is a copy of the Frontier Scout, volume 1, number 9 in a new series of issues at the paper's second location, Fort Rice. Dated August 10, 1865, this issue names Capt. E. G. Adams as editor and Lt. C. H. Champney as publisher. The Library's copy is printed on a four-page sheet of blue-ruled notebook paper. The contents of the August 10 issue are almost entirely from the pen of Captain Adams, who saw fit to run the statement: "Every article in the paper is original and sees the light for the first time." A long poem about Columbus, which he entitled "San Salvador," occupies most of the front page. More interesting is a second-page editorial headed "Indian Impolicy," rebuking the authorities in Washington for not allowing General Sully a free hand in his current operations against the Indians (whom the editor calls "these miserable land-pirates"). From this issue one gains an impression that Fort Rice must have been a dreary post. The following is under date of August 6 in a section captioned "Local Items": By the Big Horn and Spray [vessels] the Q. M. Dept. at Fort Rice receive 4500 sacks of corn. The Mail arrives. The wolves are howling on all sides tonight; we can see them, some of them are as large as year old calves. The first cat arrives at Fort Rice. There are so many rats and mice here it is a great field for feline missionaries. The Library of Congress obtained its copy of this issue of the Frontier Scout through an exchange with the South Dakota Historical Society in November 1939. |
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