The following information was taken from a frame on the wall of the Eagle River Historical Society Railroad Depot Museum in 2021:

History of Newspapers in Eagle River

1886 Patrick O’Brian published the first newspaper in Eagle River, The Eagle River Vindicator. The following year Mr. O’Brian sold the paper to O. B. Moon.

1890 Two Eagle River businessmen DeWar and McIntyre, published the Eagle River Review. This competition prompted Mr. Moon to buy out the Review and sell the Vindicator to Sam Shaw of Crandon.

1893 The Democratic Printing Company of Eagle River with no stockholders published The Eagle River Democrat. There were now two newspapers in town!

1896 The Democrat was sold to D. F. Riordan and G. F. Sanborn who changed the name to the Vilas County News and the politics to Republican.

1927 In the intervening years both papers changed hands twice. After 34 years of battling it out, the two papers merged and became the Vilas County News-Review.

1932 Walt Gander, Carl Fredricks, Joyce Larkin and B. Treutel formed the News Review Company and bought the paper.

1952 The Vilas County News-Review was sold to J. R. Satran & Sons.

1985 The Satrans sold the paper to Murray Cohen of Delphos Newspapers. It was published by Eagle River Publications, Inc. With Byron McNutt as publisher.

2011 McNutt retired and Kurt Krueger became the publisher.

**** indicates no known author.

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