The Gilpin County Historical Society hosted the opening of the new Weekly Register-Call Print Shop Museum on Saturday, April 23, 2022, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Gilpin County Historical Society President Jim Crawford led the tour of the building and its historic print shop.

Crawford said this is probably the oldest masonry building still in use in Central City. The first two floors were built during the winter of 1861 to 1862. The first floor housed two storefronts which were occupied by a variety of businesses. Some of the early occupants were H.J. Kruse Groceries, Bon Ton Restaurant, J.H. Schwender Boots and Shoes, J. Collier’s Photography Studio, L McClain Photography Studio, Sessler and Sauer Dry Goods and Undertaking, Schlessinger and Lintz Music Hall, Lazares and Morris Jewelry Store and watch repair, and the E. Goldman Saloon.

In 1877, E. H. Lindsey, who had operated the elevator bar in the Teller House, opened The New State, which was advertised as the most attractive resort in the city. After the 1874 fire, which the building survived and helped stop, merchants who lost their buildings in the fire flocked to this and Raynold’s Beehive building, the Dragon Tiger Casino, to set up temporary quarters after the fire while buildings were rebuilt.

The front rooms on the second floor were occupied for many years by Central City lawyers, including Leroy J. Williams, Kenneth Montgomery, and David C. Collier. He was also editor of the Tri-Weekly Miner’s Register.

The third floor was added to the building in 1864 to create space for the Central City Masonic Lodge. The members of the Chivington Number 6 Masonic Lodge joined with Collier and Frank Hall, at the time the owners of the newspaper, to build the third floor. There is reportedly a foot of dirt sandwiched between the roof of the second floor and the floor of the third floor.

Named for Col. John Chivington of Sand Creek infamy, Chivington Lodge No. 6 was chartered on December 11, 1861. The name was changed to Central Lodge No. 6 in 1866, in part because of Chivington’s involvement with Sand Creek. In 1890 the Masonic Lodge purchased the lower two floors for $6,000. The Lodge still operates and is one of oldest in Colorado.

The first newspapers in Gilpin County were the Rocky Mountain Gold Reporter and then Mountain City Herald, which was started by Thomas Gibson, who had helped start the Rocky Mountain News with William N. Byers in April 1859.

The Herald was printed from June to November 1859 at which time the plant was moved to Golden where it became The Mountaineer and then the Colorado Transcript.

The press had been used to print one issue of the Cherry Creek Pioneer by John Merrick, who then sold it to Gibson from a grubstake. It was already a relic by then and had been dumped in the Missouri River by Mormon haters and it became known as the Peripatetic Mormon Press.

From 1859 to 1862 there were no newspapers in the county. In the summer of 1862 Alfred Thompson brought a Washington hand press and type from Glenwood, Iowa, to Central City, and on July 28, 1862, the first issue of the Tri- Weekly Miner’s Register was printed.

A few days after the first issue came out, Thompson was delayed in Denver and it looked as if there would not be an issue of the paper. Collier, a young lawyer in Central City, took over, writing editorials and news articles to produce an issue.

He did it so well that Thompson kept him on as an employee. Collier was very knowledgeable about national politics and was a firm Union supporter. His editorials were credited with helping keep Colorado in the Union camp during the Civil War.

In April 1863, Collier, Hugh Glenn and George Wells bought out Thompson. In August 1863 it became the Daily Miner’s Register. Glenn sold his interest to Collier and Wells the following November.

In 1863, William Train Muir had started the Colorado Miner in Black Hawk. The same year, Ovando J. Hollister purchased it, renaming it the Black Hawk Mining Journal.

Frank Hall worked for the Journal until purchasing part of the Miner’s Register in 1865.

Black Hawk Mining Journal sold and moved to Central City in 1866, became the Times and then the Colorado Herald. Frank Fossett bought it in 1870 and continued to publish it until 1873.

In 1876, William McLaughlin and W.W. Sullivan established the Times in Black Hawk. James R. Oliver later bought Sullivan’s interest and moved to Central City and became the Post. After a short time, it was sold to Fritz Altvater and others and changed to the Gilpin Observer, which continued to publish until 1924.

The Register-Call usually came out on Thursdays, the Observer on Fridays. Altvater sold the paper to William Stull in 1904 when he was elected county clerk and recorder. Stull moved to Wyoming in 1924, and later to New Mexico.

In 1883 Calvin and Lucas started publishing the Weekly Ledger in Central City, and it lasted about a year. In December 1897, Charles M. Johnson and Louis Slingerhand started the Star in Black Hawk and stopped the next year.

In July 1897, Daniel Sayrs started the Independent in Central, later consolidated with the Republican first under Sayrs and Wright and later by William C. Fullerton.

In the Fall of 1900, J.D. and H.C. Hurd started the Gilpin Daily Miner, which became the Gilpin Weekly Miner after the election that year and lasted a few years.

In 1868 the Daily Mining Journal/ Daily Central City Register shortened its named to the Central City Register. After a physical breakdown, Collier sold his interest to W.W. Whipple in 1873. By 1877, Frank Hall was the sole owner of the paper and that year he sold it to James A. Smith and Den Marlow.

The next year, Smith and Marlow sold the paper to Halsey M. Rhoads. Rhoads had published two small daily newspapers prior to the buying the Register, In February 1878, George M. Laird started the Evening Call newspaper and in May he bought the Register from Rhoads. He consolidated