When Jasper’s first newspaper hit breakfast tables, armchairs and benches around town, its goal was to inform Jasperites about the community’s goings-ons.
It was 1927 and local press was identified as a need that wasn’t yet being met in the small railway town tucked in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, and so began the Jasper Signal. In the paper’s first editorial, it noted that in a community as isolated as Jasper there needed to be a way to stay informed and the Jasper Signal would fill that role.
The first issue was printed on Oct. 6, 1927 under the leadership of J. L. Hollinshead. At that time, a subscription to the paper was $2.50 a year.
Unfortunately, the Jasper Signal didn’t last, folding during its first year after succumbing to the high cost of printing. It then amalgamated with the paper in Edson to create the Jasper-Edson Signal.
The two-community publication ran under the tagline: “Covers Alberta’s Premier Coal Field and Canada’s Most Picturesque National Park Like a Tent”. It was available for $2 a year for Canadian residents and $2.50 a year for U.S. residents.
When the Signal called it quits in 1943, there was a hiatus before another newspaper filled its place. In the meantime, Jasperites relied on the Edmonton Journal, which kept tabs on Jasper and published frequent stories about Jasper National Park and its growing tourism market.
In 1947, the Jasper Park Totem hit newsstands, again with a short run, lasting just a year. Interestingly, in its first editorial, the paper referred to itself as Jasper’s first community newspaper, despite the two that came before it.
Seven years later, Jasper’s next publication—The Jasper Totem—had its start, charging 10 cents a copy. The Totem, not to be confused with its similarly named predecessor The Jasper Park Totem, was in print for 12 years, ultimately calling it quits in 1967, four years after the start of the Jasper Booster and two years after the founding of the Jasper Gateway.
The Jasper Booster—Jasper’s longest standing paper—got its start in 1963 and had a 46-year tenure, providing the community with weekly news each Wednesday.
The Gateway released its first issue in 1965 under publisher Charlie West. Over its four-year run, the Gateway fluctuated in size and shape numerous times, never sticking with one consistent look.
The Booster outlived the Gateway and Jasper Magazine—which started in 1993 and lasted less than a year—and for many years was Jasper’s one and only community newspaper, covering local events, politics and governance issues and providing the community with a recorded history that can still be found today in the archives of the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and Archives, with copies dating back to 1969.
The Sun Media paper printed its last edition March 11, 2009 and, like all the papers that came before it, cited financial challenges as the reason for calling it quits.
The Fitzhugh came on the scene in 2005 as a photo heavy, colourful, young alternative to the Booster. It was started by five local business owners, who wanted to offer Jasperites an independent, locally-owned community newspaper.
In 2012, the paper sold to Aberdeen Publishing Inc., a small umbrella company that oversees a collection of 13 community newspapers throughout British Columbia and Alberta.
Following the Booster’s closure in 2009, the Fitzhugh was Jasper’s only news outlet until former Fitzhugh editor, Bob Covey, began publishing The Jasper Local—Jasper’s bimonthly alternative newspaper.
The Local made its debut in the spring of 2013 and has recently grown to include a podcast.
No matter what name was on the masthead, for nearly 90 years Jasperites have smudged their fingers with newsprint, receiving their weekly dose of local news, opinion and entertainment.
Through these publications, Jasper’s stories have been recorded for years to come—they will live on in the memories of readers, in the archives of the museum and, these days, in online archives.
It’s been a wild ride for newspapers in our little town, with numerous startups and failures over the years, but one thing has always remained the same: each and every publication has set out to provide Jasperites with news that’s relevant to Jasper life.
Just like the 1927 Jasper Signal, we continue to strive to tell Jasper’s stories and keep Jasperites in the loop about local goings-ons.
Did we forget a publication? Let us know by emailing [email protected].
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
