The earliest examples of Colorado printing are the first numbers of
two competing newspapers, which were issued at Denver on April 23,
1859, only about 20 minutes apart.[130] Taking precedence was the
_Rocky Mountain News_, published by William N. Byers & Co. and printed
with equipment purchased in Nebraska. Its printers were John L. Dailey
of Ohio, a member of the company, and W. W. Whipple of Michigan.[131]
The Library of Congress recently acquired its earliest example of
Colorado printing, a broadside entitled _Laws and Regulations of the
Miners of the Gregory Diggings District_, attributed to the Byers &
Co. press. Printed sometime after July 16, 1859, it is one of but
two located copies of the first extant Colorado imprint other than
a newspaper or newspaper extra.[132] The laws, passed at miners'
meetings on June 8 and July 16, apply to the district named for John
Gregory, whose successful prospecting helped to stimulate the famous
Pike's Peak gold rush. They were placed in historical context by Peter
C. Schank, assistant chief of the American-British Law Division in the
Library of Congress, in an article announcing this acquisition:
the laws themselves are intrinsically valuable because they
served as a model for much succeeding legislation, not only
for other mining districts, but for State and national
enactments as well. Despite the promulgation of California
district laws 10 years earlier, the Gregory laws, perhaps
because of the district's fame, the presence of prospectors
with previous experience in other mining areas, and the
imminent adoption of the first national mining statute, had
a unique influence on the development of mining law in this
country.[133]
The lower margin of the Library's copy is inscribed, "Favor of Stiles
E Mills, July 20th 1863." Neither the identity of Mr. Mills nor the
intervening provenance has been established. In recent years this
copy belonged to Thomas W. Streeter (1883-1965) of Morristown, N. J.,
owner of the most important private library of Americana assembled
during the 20th century. The Library of Congress paid $2,800 for the
broadside at that portion of the Streeter sale held by Parke-Bernet
Galleries on April 23-24, 1968.[134]
Previously the Library's first example of Colorado printing was the
second issue of a small newspaper sheet, _The Western Mountaineer_,
published at Golden City on December 14, 1859. This newspaper was
printed on the same press, actually the first to reach Colorado, that
under different ownership had lost the close race to print the first
newspaper at Denver. Gold is a prominent topic in this particular
issue, which includes an interesting account of the prospector,
George Andrew Jackson, based on information he himself supplied.
The Library's copy seems to have been detached from a bound volume,
probably before its listing in _A Check List of American Newspapers
in the Library of Congress_ (1901). Penciled on its front page are
the name "Lewis Cass [Esquire?]" and what appears to be another name
beginning with "Amos." Lewis Cass was Secretary of State at the time
of publication.
[Illustration: (_Laws and Regulations of the Miners of the Gregory
Diggings District_)]
[Footnote 130: See Douglas C. McMurtrie and Albert H. Allen, _Early
Printing in Colorado_ (Denver, 1935).]
[Footnote 131: See _History of the City of Denver, Arapahoe County,
and Colorado_ (Chicago, 1880), p. 395 and 641.]
[Footnote 132: See no. 68 in Thomas W. Streeter's
_Americana--Beginnings_ (Morristown, N.J., 1952).]
[Footnote 133: U.S. Library of Congress, _The Quarterly Journal of the
Library of Congress_, vol. 26 (1969), p. 229.]
[Footnote 134: It is described under no. 2119 in _The Celebrated
Collection of Americana Formed by the Late Thomas Winthrop Streeter_
(New York, 1966-69), vol. 4.]