Times Turns 90... Oh The Memories

by Kilgore Trout
Staff Writer

September 11, 2009
Today's date holds special meaning for those of us who reside in Cooper County. On this day in 1919 the first edition of the Cooper County Times was published in newly christened Cooper Township.

1919 was a big year for the town and county of Cooper, for it was that year that businessmen from Chicago moved to the area to take advantage of its proximity to the Canadian border. They brought with them dozens of skilled laborers and their families to establish Cooper as an outpost in the north woods. In fact, it was the prevalence of coopers, or barrel makers, brought to the town that gave the town and county its name. Apparently barrels were very important in whatever business in which the founders were involved.

The times bears little resemblance to the current publication we all enjoy today. A common use of the paper in the first few years was to announce to friends and "girlfriends" when the spouses of the editors and reporters would be away. A typical entry reads as such, "The wife of Mr. Fred Krunske will be away the week of Sept 12-19 visiting her sister in Peoria. Should anyone at the train station see Mrs. Krunske returning on a date prior to Sept 19 please send a message to Mr. Krunske at his home post haste." There were also many advertisements of men's products, clothing, hardware, firearms... as well as obituaries of many of the founders old friends and business partners who stayed in the Chicago area.

The format of the Times took a big shift in around 1928. This shift was a direct result of an issue of the Times being accidentally delivered to the town's beauty parlor. Apparently the granting of suffrage inspired a desire to keep up on the news, which proved disastrous for the "girlfriends" industry in Cooper. After the shift the Times began to report more hard news. Some examples of headlines in the following years; "Mysterious Fire Destroys Manor of Ms. Annie Smythe: 13 Women Homeless" or "Many Dead Animals Found in Woods North of Town, Bears Suspected".

The Times evolution into what it is today really began after WWII when returning soldier Clifton Chase took over as editor of the Times. By this time Cooper had become a sort of retirement community for Chicago businessmen, many of whom had made their fortune young and retired at an early age. Chase, a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a degree in Journalism, migrated to Cooper because he heard a man could get a good drink in that town. As luck would have it, there was an opening on the Times' staff when the body of the reporter investigating the dead animals found in the woods north of town was found mutilated and covered with scat. A bear was suspected.

Chase added a weather report and sports column to the Times by the end of 1946, and expanded circulation throughout the county by the end of the decade. He ingratiated himself with the aging town founders by re-introducing the travels of their spouses in a Society page. Somehow the women didn't catch on. Chase held the position of editor for nearly forty years, from '46 to '82. He died while setting the type for the recap of the first football game the University of Minnesota played in the Metrodome. I think we all died a little that day... because of the loss of Clifton Chase, that is.

So as we go about our day today, September 11, lets take some time to remember the history of our community. Lets remember the humble, if hidden beginnings. Lets remember the many stories and clues published along the way by devoted reporters who didn't live to see the end of their work. And lets remember just how important it is to pay attention to the details, for if we had paid attention to the reports, the tragedy of the discovery of the sasquatches living in the woods north of Cooper might have been avoided, or at least the body count lessened.

Here's to Cooper, 90 years and going strong!