The Idaho Republican Archive 

On July 22, 1904, the first issue of the Idaho Republican was published in Blackfoot, Bingham County, Idaho. It was established by the Idaho Publishing Company, with Byrd Trego as editor, "for the purpose of giving the people of Blackfoot and the country tributary to it, a newspaper of the type and character that Idahoans of the present decade are demanding." Although Republican in politics, it claimed to be "above petty partisanship." Trego had been the publisher of the Mackay Telegraph, and while beginning the Republican he was still serving as one of the editors of the Telegraph.

From the first issue, the Idaho Republican consisted of eight pages with six columns. It was published every Friday morning, and in the first issue stated that the "sworn circulation" of the weekly would be 1,200. The Republican published a small article providing an overview of the town of Blackfoot, the seat of Bingham County. Situated on the Oregon Short Line Railroad, Blackfoot boasted a population of 2,000, the paper specifying that it consisted only of "white Americans." The principal industry of the area was agriculture, with "many great canals" constructed for irrigation, tapping the Snake River near the edge of town. There were also many fruit orchards around Blackfoot, although sugar beets were the main focus.

The Idaho Republican had an ongoing rivalry with the Blackfoot Optimist, the latter established in 1907. In 1912, the Republican replaced the Optimist as the official paper of Bingham County. The Republican eventually absorbed the Optimist’s successor, the Bingham County News, in 1930.

In April 1917, the Republican began publishing as a semiweekly, with issues released on Monday and Friday. News of World War I filled much of the extra column space in the Republican. It reported that the subscription price would be doubled, because the price of paper had tripled since the beginning of the war. In November 1917, the publication days changed to Tuesday and Friday. From March 1920 to February 1921, the paper became a tri-weekly, with issues published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. For one year, the Republican returned to a semiweekly Monday and Thursday schedule, before reverting to a weekly in January 1922.

Byrd Trego retained his position as editor from the very first issue of the paper until 1927, when it changed its name to the Daily Republican. In October of that year, the title changed yet again, becoming the Daily Bulletin. Trego remained involved in the paper until 1932.