The Tucumcari News Archive

The El Paso Northeastern, a railroad built in 1898, led to the creation of Tucumcari, New Mexico. Tucumcari became a thriving community after the Rock Island extended two more lines, from Dalhart and Amarillo, Texas. Tucumcari flourished as an agricultural trading center and the seat of Quay County. A Republican weekly founded by S.M. Wharton, the Tucumcari News appeared from October 28, 1905, through January 12, 1907. On January 19, 1907, the News merged with Arthur E. Curren's Tucumcari Times to form the Tucumcari News and Tucumcari Times. The News and Times also included a companion paper called the Tucumcari Weekly Review. The paper resumed publication under the original name of the Tucumcari News on May 27, 1922, and continued in operation until 1933. "The" was dropped from the title between September 7, 1922, and December 15, 1927.

Subscription costs for newspapers varied throughout the territory. In central and western New Mexico, weeklies usually charged $1.50 to $3.00 a year, but in Quay County and other parts of eastern New Mexico weeklies cost only $1.00 a year. The Tucumcari News offered this lower rate according to the July 6, 1907 edition, as did the Tucumcari News and Tucumcari Times according to the June 12, 1919 edition. The low subscription cost, coupled with enthusiastic promotion, created a large readership: the Tucumcari News had 1,900 subscribers in 1907, and by 1919, the Tucumcari News and Tucumcari Times boasted the "Largest circulation of any paper in Quay County."

The majority of daily newspapers in New Mexico had adopted modern printing techniques by 1900, but most weeklies continued to use the old handset type and Washington hand presses until about 1912 when some began to acquire power and linotype presses. The Tucumcari News was one of the first papers in the territory to adopt a linotype.