Colorado Newspaper "Saguache Crescent" Still Prints Using 19th-Century Technology of Linotype

Like many newspapers, the Saguache Crescent, a weekly newspaper in Saguache, Colorado, thrives thanks to its 360 subscribers. But it is a one-of-a-kind newspaper, as it is printed using linotype, a printing technology that is already over 100 years old. It is the last newspaper in the United States to use such technology.

The Saguache Crescent today is run by one man named Dean Coombs. Coombs, 70, started working at the paper when he was still 12 years old. He took over the newspaper when his father died of a heart attack in 1978. From that time to today, Coombs only missed a day of work, and that was due to food poisoning. Even after working there for over four decades, Coombs still sees no point in changing the technology. "It's just what I know," he says.

One of the challenges of printing using the 15th-century printing press made by Johannes Gutenberg was the tedious typesetting. Back then, people typeset texts letter by letter and line by line. Thanks to Ottmar Mergenthaler's invention of the linotype in 1880, typesetting lines of type were made possible. It was indeed a big step up. The linotype, however, was replaced when computers arrived on the scene in the 1970s.

Printing using the linotype machine truly is a fascinating art. However, the practice may be gone after some years, as Coombs has no children and no trainees to who he can pass the art over.

(Images: Rob Hammer)

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