Mountain Home Maverick Archive

The Idaho and Oregon Land Improvement Company developed the town of Mountain Home along the Oregon Short Line Railroad. Mountain Home was the main shipping point for minerals coming out of the mines of Rocky Bar and Atlanta, Idaho. The area also had a robust ranching economy focused on sheep and wool.

The Mountain Home Maverick was established after the Mountain Home Publishing Association purchased the "business, subscription list, and goodwill" of the Elmore Bulletin in May 1906. The new name was important to the owners and the editor, James W. Connella, as it signified a clean slate and disassociated the new paper from past opinions of the Bulletin. The Maverick published weekly on Thursdays with eight pages and six columns. Special features in the Maverick included "Talk of the Town," which detailed local social happenings, "School Notes," which described the news of the local schools, and "Agriculture Department," which explored farming topics. The Maverick also covered news of the Mountain Home area's mines, railroads, and churches regularly and extensively under varying column titles. Conella was the paper's first editor, followed by L.W. Everson in 1907, and Karl H.S. Hougen in 1908. The Maverick's published was known as the Mountain Home Publishing Association until 1909, when it changed its name to the Elmore Publishing Company. In 1910, Hougen took over publishing the paper and Truxton Talbot became editor. In 1911 Hougen was listed as the paper's sole editor and proprietor.

The Maverick was consolidated with the Mountain Home Republican in 1911.