What happens when a researcher asks for primary source material in local news for the 1923 presidential election and the source is located? Discovery for the researcher and the librarians! Case in point, the “Yellowstone Daily Tourist,” an addition to the Livingston Enterprise.
While this special edition is part of the Livingston Enterprise, it was not microfilmed as part of the Enterprise. The Yellowstone Research Library has hard copies of the “Yellowstone Daily Tourist” from 1923 through August 1926. It may be that we have the sole copies of the “Yellowstone Daily Tourist” since searching for it in the Montana State University and the Montana Historical Society collections did not result in a holding.
The purpose of the edition was to reach Yellowstone’s tourist population and inform them about news in the Park and Livingston. It was printed daily and each edition contains seven pages and could be purchased for 10 cents.
The July 7, 1923 Monthly Report of the Superintendent states “Attached to this report you will find several copies of the Livingston Enterprise, Yellowstone Daily Tourist Edition, which is to all intents and purposes a Yellowstone Park paper. This paper has proved to be very popular and it making tremendous strides in more completely tying up the town with all of the policies and principals that governs the National Park Service and is particularly devoted to the policy of complete conservation. We are supplying news to the paper and are furthering its sale in every feasible manner. Great credit for the issuing of this paper is due to Mr. L. E. Flint, News Editor, and Mr. J. Thomas Melton, the General Manager of the Enterprise.” –Horace Albright, Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park.
