The newspaper business today involves digital cameras, pdf files and programs like Adobe InDesign.
We find new stories through email or over the telephone, and someone from the newsroom can be reached almost 24 hours a day.
This was not the picture a hundred years ago, let alone 134, when P.G. Laurie founded the Saskatchewan Herald. A one-person operation from the outset, the first copies of the paper were printed with a press that had been pulled 600 miles west by oxcart.
Battleford may have been the capital of the North West Territory, but it was still comparatively remote, and publishing the newspaper required personal connections, judicious use of telegraphs and a great deal of hard work. When the newspaper was first published in 1878, it was the first between Winnipeg and the Rockies.
Today, in 2012, William Laurie and his wife, Cheryl, are in town after having made a very different journey from most people. Travelling in the opposite direction to the "snowbirds," the Lauries left behind balmy Florida for the comparative chill of North Battleford to research their family history. As P.G. Laurie is William's great-grandfather, North Battleford was an obvious destination, though their trip has also taken them from Alabama to Scotland.
William and Cheryl saw North Battleford for the first time only four years ago. Though William had grown up in Florida and has spent almost his entire life there, his family moved to Florida four years before his birth.
Don Light has, understandably, been an important part of their trip. His voluminous knowledge of the local history, along with the fact he has likely read everything P.G. Laurie ever published made him an ideal guide. He also has every issue of the Saskatchewan Herald at the Fred Light Museum, so the Lauries have been able to read the articles as they originally appeared.
The process has been an enjoyable one. Cheryl remarked that "being able to read his opinions, too, is a lot of fun. He had a lot of strong opinions."
Through P.G. Laurie's articles, William and Cheryl have come to have a larger image of P.G. as a person. He was, William knew, a "pillar of the community." But reading his work and speaking with Don Light taught them more, about his close work with the North West Mounted Police and his support for John A. McDonald, for example.
They also learned a great deal about the Battlefords a century ago.
"I was actually surprised in reading all the things that I've read at the culture and the genteelness of the society out here in the 1880s and 1890s. They had plays, readings, the opera house, they just had so much culture and refinement that I don't think we had in the south at that period of time in our country."
Impressive, too, was the historical record maintained first by Fred Light and now by his son, Don.
"I go right back to south Alabama and the amount of information available during that time in southern Alabama is so miniscule compared to here in Battleford," William said.
The Lauries plan to return to the Battlefords some time in the future. Their first trip had lasted only a few days, but this time they were in town for a week. In that time, they visited the Fred Light Museum and Fort Battleford, saw the Battleford Opera House and toured the community with Don Light and John Fisher, taking in local history.
Calling the town "wonderful" and the people "extremely nice," they also complimented the local food, saying that they have sampled many restaurants and will likely leave "ten pounds heavier."
Their enthusiasm was great enough that one wondered, after speaking to them, why anyone would move from Saskatchewan to Florida.
