Inter Lake celebrates 125th year

Today, the Inter Lake is commemorating its 125th year as the first and best newspaper in Northwest Montana with a special section dedicated to retelling some of the history of the paper, plus reprinting some historic front pages from our early years.

The Inter Lake was founded in Demersville, a few miles south of present-day Kalispell, by C.O. Ingalls and his wife, Emma, who later went on to be one of the first women legislators in Montana and a successful storyteller in her own right. The first issue of the then-weekly publication appeared on Aug. 23, 1889, and Ingalls later oversaw the migration of the newspaper plant to Kalispell in 1891 — lock, stock and printing press — along with the rest of the town of Demersville.

As Managing Editor Frank Miele notes in his story about the Inter Lake’s history on the front page of the special section, Mr. Ingalls set the bar high with the very first issue when he wrote: “This paper is owned by no political party or clique and proposes to work faithfully for this portion of Missoula county and its citizens.”

Through the years, we think we can accurately say that the editors and publishers of the Inter Lake have taken that proposal seriously, and have continued to promote the interests of what is now Flathead County and its citizens regardless of political pressure, commercial pressure or any other kind of pressure.

Times have certainly changed since 1889, but the importance of newspapers has not. Indeed, it strikes us that as the pace of change has increased over the past few decades, the role of the Daily Inter Lake as a permanent record of what Flathead County has been and aspires to be is more important than ever.

We hope you think so, too, and we’d like to share an afternoon with you, our readers and advertisers, on Thursday, Sept. 25, when we will celebrate our 125th anniversary with a barbecue from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in our front parking lot.

We couldn’t have done it without you.

Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Daily Inter Lake’s editorial board.