Rumors are nothing new in the news business. We hear all kinds of unfounded rumors every day, which we can usually file under the heading of either wishful thinking or malicious mischief.

But rarely are the rumors about us, so this last week was something of a novelty for me, as I dealt with a story being shopped around town that the Daily Inter Lake doesn’t have distribution in Lincoln County.

Now, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard this rumor, and I have a pretty good idea where it started, but frankly it was so absurd I didn’t think it needed a response. After all, those bright orange newspaper tubes up and down the highways to Eureka, Libby and Troy should be loud enough evidence to shout down any false rumor, right?

Well, apparently not. To quote a famous wag, “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” In this case, the lie seems to be targeted to our advertisers in particular, and I’d like to assure them and all our readers that the fully clothed truth is that the Inter Lake serves not only the vast majority of the population base in Lincoln County, but also most of Lake County, including the largest cities of Polson and Ronan. In fact, we sell nearly 1,000 copies a day in Lincoln County and about 800 in Lake County. And when you add in our sister publications in those counties, our total distribution goes up to 3,700 in Lincoln County and 4,000 in Lake County. Not bad... considering the rumor!

So take it from me, we aren’t just a Kalispell newspaper, nor even a Flathead County paper. We serve all of Northwest Montana, and have for decades. It’s part of our proud history. Don’t forget that until 1909, what is now Lincoln County was still part of Flathead County.

So the Inter Lake has always been much more than the Kalispell newspaper. In fact, when it was founded in 1889, it was located in the now vanished town of Demersville, but even then we covered Lincoln County news with great interest. In October 1890, we ran three related stories about the 1887 murder of three white men in remote Northwest Montana in what is now Lincoln County, and the trial of four Indians for the crime. Remember, this was the wild West. A year later, we delivered an in-depth account of “the rich prospects of the Kootenai Country,” which provided a pretty good introduction to the settlement of the region and an overview of the mining potential of what the editor called the “new Eldorado.”

Of course, in the pioneer days of Northwest Montana, the paper was not easily delivered to the remote outposts of Lincoln County, nor across the wide length of Flathead Lake, so circulation at first was mostly confined to what is now Flathead County.

Nonetheless, it has been many years ago now that the first carrier routes were established in the towns of Polson, Eureka, Libby, Rexford and Fortine. Although preceded by mail delivery, it was in the 1950s, during the booming post-WWII years, when the Daily Inter Lake made its push into the farthest reaches of Northwest Montana.

Managing Editor Howard Sanstedt told the noon meeting of the Kalispell Rotary in January 1950 about “the establishment of motorized carrier routes to Hungry Horse dam, Columbia Falls, Whitefish, Polson and the East and West Lake Shore areas.”

Two years later, a front-page story announced that Gene Nordahl had begun a carrier route in Fortine and already had 15 new subscribers. The story also announced that carrier service was about to begin in Eureka and that “any Eureka boy desiring an Inter Lake route” should contact Circulation Manager Larry Ragan.

By 1955, it was reported in a special “Progress Edition,” that, “The Inter Lake has a total of 70 carrier boys serving the area, 31 in Kalispell, 14 in Whitefish, nine in Columbia Falls, two each in Eureka, Rexford, Olney, Hungry Horse, Coram, Martin City and West Glacier, one in Fortine, and one in Columbia Heights.”

By the following year, Circulation Manager Bill Johnson was bragging about “the acceptance of The Daily Inter Lake in Polson, Libby and surrounding areas.” After that, of course, there was no turning back. The Inter Lake had become an important part of all those communities.

One small vignette from those days arrived by e-mail last year following our re-publication of the 1962 Progress Edition as a souvenir edition. Roe Hatlen of Bigfork wrote to tell me how pleased he was to read again two stories written by his mother Hilda Hatlen, who in 1962 was our Libby correspondent. He also told the story of his own early days as a newspaper carrier in Libby:

“In 1960 the Inter Lake was trying to expand in Libby and as a high school senior, Mother arranged for me to be the Inter Lake’s dealer for all of Libby. I had the stores and the homes... it was a great business experience. Money earned helped me to be the first in our family to go to college (Pacific Lutheran University).

“My paper experience stayed with me. In 1983 I was the founding chairman and CEO of Old Country Buffet, which grew to become the 13th largest restaurant chain in America. When we sold the company in October of 2000 we operated over 400 buffet restaurants in 35 states.”

Talking about all of this at the Inter Lake office here in Kalispell made us wonder who else has a great story to tell about their involvement with the newspaper over the years. So we are launching a Reader Rewards Contest just for you.

Have you subscribed to the Daily Inter Lake for more than 10 years? 20 years? 30 years? More than 50 years? If so, we want to hear from you… Tell us your stories of yesteryear about how the newspaper made a difference in your life — Led you to your job? Your spouse? Your hobby? Whatever interesting story you may have, we would love to hear it.

We will reward the longest subscriber with either a one-year extension of your Daily Inter Lake subscription or $200 cash prize, your choice.

Also, we will offer three Editor’s Choice awards that recognize the length of your readership and your interesting story about your early readership of the paper. Each Editor’s Choice winner will receive a $50 gift certificate to the local restaurant of your choice.

Please submit your story in writing to:

Reader Rewards Contest

PO Box 7610

Kalispell, MT 59904

Or, email it to: readerrewards@dailyinterlake.com

Be sure to include your full name, address where you currently subscribe, and phone number.

By submitting your story, you give permission for the Daily Inter Lake to use all or part of it in news and promotional content, so maybe I’ll be telling your story in a future column!