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Show sCommunity When we went back into our files last week to find out what Ye Olde Editor had had to say about the incorporation of Moab in 1902, the temptation to reproduce the entire four-page section was just too much, so we did it. Not every article in this week's historic supplement came from that particular issue, but most of them did. We picked out a few other interesting tidbits from some other files and pasted them over some items that weren't particularly interesting today, and we procured copies of county commission and town council minutes of the day. But, by and large, what your are seeing this week is just about what Moabites saw in 1902 following incorporation of the city. It only took us a few hours to do the job. We simply photographed the pages; made offset plates of the four and ran them off on our roll-fed web offset press in less than 20 minutes. If we had had to set type and headlines that were involved, we would have only been talking about a few more hours on our three computers. But it sure wasn't that way in 1902. Editor J. N. Corbin, who freighted a few hundred pounds of printing equipment into Moab in 1896 to get out the first issue, had to set every letter of type by hand. And when he started way back then, he had no previous experience to back him up. A country lawyer and prospector who later went on to start the area's first telephone company, simply felt the community needed a newspaper, and went about getting the job done. After each letter was placed in a "stick" to make a word, it was followed by others to make a line and then the whole mess which was prone to flying into hundreds of pieces was locked up in a metal "chase" and placed on a press. Of course there was no electric power in those days, so each 2 pages of the paper was printed by hand, using muscle power. The page of metal stories and ads was covered with ink from a roller; a piece of wet newsprint was carefully placed over the page and then a screw was turned, forcing the press to close and transfer the image from type to paper. Then the wet newsprint had to be dried before it could be turned over and printed on the other side. The whole process must have been overwhelming. I'm not sure I'd have liked living in the good old days. It sounds like a lot of work to me. sjt The beautifully-prepared draft management plan for Canyonlands finally hit the mails this week, made up in a slick fold-out road map fashion so that it might be studied in detail by those receiving copies. Although I haven't had time to study it in detail, in order to prepare my official response for the record (for what that's worth), the plan contains not many surprises over what has been discussed at length in previous issues. The plan, according to a statement this week from Superintendent Pete Parry, is the product of "professional Park Service planners' judgment," put together after workshops and campfire meetings. If you weren't on the fortunate list of those who received copies in the mail and would like to have one, they are available at the NPS office on South Main in Moab. 8t Note to Nemo Glitz of Box 1415, Moab: Editorial cartoons, unlike letters to the editor, are traditionally used to reflect the editorial position of the publication. The recent cartoon which appeared on this page did just that, and the one you submitted did not, hence it is not appearing this week. Besides, the initial cartoon artist had courage enough to sign it with his real name. |