Stillwater Area Historic Newspaper Initiative

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Stillwater Area Historic Newspaper Initiative

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We are a collaboration of local and regional history organizations making old newspapers available. Andersen and Hugh J. Andersen foundations.

We're digitizing tens of thousands of pages of historic newspapers from the Stillwater, Minnesota area, with the collaboration of local and regional nonprofit partners and generous grants from the Fred C. & Katherine B.

09/23/2026

Breaking news: more Stillwater Gazette newspapers were just added to the Minnesota Historical Society's Digital Newspaper Hub, including this April 19, 1965 issue after the St. Croix River set its all-time highest flood crest. You can now read and search Gazettes from 1870 through June 1967. Enjoy!

Our project is a collaboration of the Stillwater Public Library, Stillwater Public Library Foundation, Washington County Historical Society, and MNHS.

08/20/2026

Just added: Stillwater Evening Gazette newspapers from 1960 to 1963.

Local newspapers included wire service stories on national and global events, but it can be especially interesting to learn how those events were experienced here in our community. These clippings are from November 22-26, 1963, following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Stillwater Public Library Stillwater Public Library Foundation Washington County Historical Society

05/15/2026

in the April 14, 1874 edition of the Stillwater Gazette there was talk about baseball fever breaking out in Stillwater! More than 150 years later there is still the fever for baseball!!

03/06/2026

BREAKING (OLD) NEWS: We’re excited to announce the next phase of our project, which will digitize Stillwater Gazette newspapers from 1947 to 1977!

Access to the searchable newspapers will be free for everyone, and the first newly-digitized issues will be available later this month. Made possible by Terry and Roxie Johnson, this work will make even more of our community’s story available to everyone for free. It builds on earlier phases that digitized historic newspapers from communities across Washington County.

What events from 1947 to 1977 do you hope to find?

02/21/2026

"Do you want health? If so, live in Stillwater..." (Stillwater Daily Gazette, 1/2/1890).

01/16/2026

Looking ahead to the weekend weather in 1877...

12/23/2025

Stillwater's first speeding ticket?

"It was alleged that yesterday he ran an auto on Churchill street faster than the lawful limit of eight miles an hour and in fact as fast as 20 miles per hour."

— Stillwater Daily Gazette, 5/23/1908

11/28/2025

Stillwater shopping in 1887:
"We do not bribe lumbermen with cheap wh**ky or 2 cent ci**rs, nor in any manner insult them. We know that the lumbermen of Stillwater are intelligent and know just where to go to obtain excellent clothing at low rates. We do not go up into the woods or down to the trains, carrying a bottle of poor wh**ky or a two cent cigar, and attempt, by this miserable and contemptible manner, to secure the trade of the boys who have been up in the woods all winter."
— Abe Rohrbach ad, Stillwater Daily Gazette, 3/26/1887.

09/04/2025

We have some exciting news to share! As of this week, the Stillwater Messenger is now digitized and freely available online for its ENTIRE run: 4,916 issues over 94 years. We hope you'll enjoy exploring the St. Croix Valley's history. (Access newspapers through the link in the comments.)

The newspaper published under various names: Stillwater Messenger (1856-1868), Stillwater Republican (1868-1870), Stillwater Messenger again (1870-1928) and finally the Stillwater Post-Messenger (1928-1950). Along the way, it absorbed the Bayport Herald and Washington County Post.

Thank you to the Fred C. & Katherine B. Andersen and Hugh J. Andersen foundations for supporting the current phase of this work... and to the Stillwater Public Library, Stillwater Public Library Foundation, Washington County Historical Society and Minnesota Historical Society for this collaboration.

(Seen here: the first and last issues, 9/17/1856 and 8/31/1950.)

03/27/2025

As of today, six additional years of the Forest Lake Times are now available online: 1966 to 1972! Search them at https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/hub

Thank you to the Fred C. & Katherine B. Andersen and Hugh J. Andersen Foundations for making this project possible, and to our project partners: Stillwater Public Library, Stillwater Public Library Foundation, Washington County Historical Society, and Minnesota Historical Society!

Address

Stillwater, MN
55082

Website

https://stillwaterareahistoricnewspapers.org/

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