The Carlsbad Current Archive

The Carlsbad Current was published weekly from June 3, 1899, through October 1, 1907, and again from November 20, 1908, through November 5, 1926.  It was preceded by the Eddy Current.  The article “The” was added to the title between 1903 and 1905.  The Carlsbad Current merged with the New Mexico Sun on October 11, 1907, and in 1908, the Carlsbad Current and New Mexico Sun called itself “the official paper of Eddy County.”  A one-year subscription to the Carlsbad Current and New Mexico Sun cost $1.50 for the weekly which was published every Friday.  The title reverted to the Carlsbad Current on November 20, 1908.  A daily edition, the Evening Current, was published from April 16, 1917, through December 14, 1918; the Carlsbad Current absorbed the Evening Current’s subscriber list when it ceased publication.

On November 9, 1926, the Carlsbad Current merged with the Carlsbad Argus to form the Carlsbad Current-Argus, which was still published in 2011.  The Current always offered national, territorial or state, and local news and added more international coverage over time.  Although significantly independent early on, the paper later became firmly Democratic, although it eventually became more non-partisan after merging with the Carlsbad Argus.

Carlsbad, which lay along the Pecos River in southeastern New Mexico, was originally known as Eddy.  It had a population of 963 in 1899 when the municipality, in an effort to exploit the mineral springs in the region, changed its name to Carlsbad, the moniker of a famous German spa.  As the town prospered, reaching a population of 1,736 by 1910, two long-lasting and three ephemeral weekly newspapers battled for profits.  Publisher William H. Mullane left journalism, selling the Carlsbad Current in 1900, but he reentered the profession by launching the New Mexico Sun in May 1905.  In August 1907, the New Mexico Sun merged with the Carlsbad Current; with Mullane serving as publisher and editor until 1912.  The chief competitor to these Democratic weeklies was the Carlsbad Argus, edited by Louis O. Fullen since 1895 and by William T. Reed after January 1907.  Reed had purchased the Argus in 1902 and served as editor and publisher until 1912, fourteen years before it merged with the Carlsbad Current.

Although the Carlsbad Current published news solely in English, the editors occasionally printed notices, such as delinquent tax lists, in Spanish.