Will Hanks moved from Ohio to Montana to establish theSun River Sun inSun River, Montana.[1] It was first published on February 14, 1884.[2] A year later Hanks moved his printing plant toGreat Falls, Montana.[1] The first edition of theWeekly Tribune was printed on May 14, 1885.[3] Hanks sold theTribune in July 1887 to Jerry Collins.[4][1]
In 1890, David Marks and M.J. Hutchins, of theHelena Independent, purchased theTribune.[5] J.A. McKnight was installed as editor in 1892.[6] A year later the paper was sold to its employees and McKnight was replaced by R.E. Gray.[7] The paper's mortgage was soon foreclosed and the business was sold at auction for $5,000 to A.M. Scott of First National bank in July 1894.[8] Phil A. Julien was then installed as editor.[9]
William McClure Bole purchased the paper in December 1894,[10] and operated it with Oliver Sherman Warden until selling it toWilliam A. Clark in 1900.[11] McClure then operated theBozeman Daily Chronicle.[12] Clark sold the paper to W.G. Conrad in October 1904.[13] McClure and Warden reacquired theTribune in April 1905.[13]
McClure died in 1932.[12] Warden died in 1951,[14][15] then succeeded at theTribune by his son Alexander Warden.[16] Decades later O.C. Warden was inducted into the Montana Newspaper Hall of Fame in 1958,[17] followed by W.M. Bole in 1963.[18] The Warden family sold the paper in 1965 to Tribune Co., owners of theMinneapolis Star-Tribune.[19] Decades later theCowles Media Company sold theTribune toGannett.[20]
TheTribune launched a subsidiary company, River's Edge Printing in 2006; the latter printed for weekly newspapers on a Goss Community press.[21] In July 2020, printing of theGreat Falls Tribune moved to the presses of theIndependent Record inHelena.[22]
^abc"Will Hanks".Great Falls Weekly Leader. September 10, 1890. p. 4.
^"Our Bow".Sun River Sun. February 14, 1884. p. 2.
^"Great Falls".Great Falls Tribune. May 14, 1885. p. 3.
^"Jerry Collins".The Independent-Record. Helena, Montana. August 24, 1887. p. 4.
^"The Tribune Sold".The Great Falls Leader. October 8, 1890. p. 1.
^"Notice".The Teton Times. Choteau, Montana. September 3, 1892. p. 2.
^"Notice".The Teton Times. Choteau, Montana. August 26, 1893. p. 2.
^"News Of The State".The Anaconda Recorder and New Northwest. July 6, 1894. p. 4.
^"Much Improved".Great Falls Tribune. August 14, 1894. p. 2.
^"Changes Hands".Belt Valley Times. Armington, Montana. January 17, 1895. p. A8.
^"Cut For A New Deal | Great Falls Tribune Sold to Clark, Much to the Dissatisfaction of Some Democrats".The Great Falls Leader. Great Falls, Montana. May 11, 1900. p. 4.
^ab"W.M. Bole Rites To Be Thursday | Death Comes Suddenly for Noted Montana Editor".The Butte Daily Post. October 11, 1932. p. 12.
^ab"Great Falls Tribune Sold".The Minneapolis Journal. April 7, 1905. p. 2.
^"O.S. Warden, 85, Publisher of Tribune, Dies at Home".Great Falls Tribune. March 12, 1951. p. 1.
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