Golden Nugget Contest – 1st place winner…

November 12, 2008 by · Leave a Comment 

We (Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers) recently released the winners of our 1st History’s Newsstand Blog contest – finding unexpected gems within newspapers – a pleasure not often found in other collectibles.  As a follow-up, we’d like to provide the rare newspapers community with the first place entry along with images (provided post-selection by the winner):

“A couple of years ago, a batch of newspapers from Deadwood, Dakota Territory came on the auction block. “The Black Hills Pioneer” I knew to be an extremely rare and desirable title from an iconic Old West location. This newspaper, I believe, was the earliest paper published in Deadwood, first published in 1876. The issue I really wanted had a report on the killing of Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood, but that went for several thousand dollars. I felt quite lucky when I was able to purchase what I thought was just an atmosphere issue with nothing too newsworthy for just over $200, dated March 3, 1877. When I looked inside the newspaper, I was surprised to find a headline “Execution of Jack McCall” along with a short article reporting the execution in Yankton, Dakota of the murderer of Wild Bill. A later report of the execution in the same newspaper had just been auctioned for over $700. Nice bargain for me…” submitted by Alan Pollack