Yakima, WA – Yakima Valley Libraries is pleased to announce that we have received a selection of early Yakima Valley newspaper archives from publisher Bruce Smith. Included in the donation are The Toppenish Review, The Wapato Independent, The Toppenish Tribune, the Review-Independent, The Zillah Mirror, and The Yakima Mirror.
According to archive librarian Terry Walker, newspapers have been published in the Yakima Valley since the 1880s and most towns, large and small, supported a newspaper that recorded local events and the news of the day.
These historical publications are an invaluable resource for researchers, genealogists, or anyone looking for first-hand accounts of historic goings-on in the Yakima Valley. Unfortunately, small newspapers with limited circulation were less likely to be digitized or preserved on microfilm, which significantly limits the public’s access to them.
Through Smith’s generous donation, Yakima Valley Libraries is now able to digitize and preserve an irreplaceable part of our local history.
“These newspapers are of lasting value to everyone in the Yakima Valley,” said executive director, Kim Hixson. “We look forward to preserving and digitizing the papers, in order to make them available to library users now and well into the future.”
For more information about the historical newspapers, or the Library’s plans to digitize them, contact Terry Walker, Archive Librarian, at (509) 575-3429.