Remember This? News on paper

From the archives of the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library:

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Technology and information sharing has changed the way we access information and news over the last 20 years, but there was plenty of change before that.

Here's a look back at one of the city's major sources of news and its more than 100-year history. 

James Curran, who founded the Sault Star, purchased its predecessor, The Sault Courier, and renamed it. The first edition of the Sault Star ran on August 31, 1901 and ran as a weekly newspaper until March 16, 1912 when it finally went into daily production.  

James W. Curran moved to Canada from Ireland with his family in 1873 before moving to Sault Ste. Marie in 1901.  He was drawn to the Soo by the rapidly developing Clergue Industrial Empire and felt it would be a great place to live.  Once Curran purchased the Sault Star he relocated the newspaper to Queen Street, and in the years following it would expand multiple times.  At one point, in an attempt to modernize the printing process an old press was “upgraded” by attaching an electric motor.  However, the results were less than encouraging and they went back to their previous method of hitting the press with a hammer!  

In 1906 Curran encouraged the construction of a highway between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury.  It was felt that through Curran’s editorials the Canadian steel mills won the contracts for the construction job.  With the eagerness for news during World War I the circulation of The Sault Star increased to 5,000.  In 1923, as the president of the Rotary Club, he created the first Community Night, with the goal to raise money for disabled children.  Since then it has been renamed Community Days which is an annual event in Sault Ste. Marie.  

Perhaps what Curran was best known for was his “wolves don’t bite” campaign. Curran spoke tirelessly in defense of the wolf, even writing a book entitled Wolves Don’t Bite.  He had offered a reward in 1925 of $100 dollars to anyone who was attacked by a wolf.  He investigated any allegation that came forward and disproved all of them. Curran was so captivated with the wolf that he used its image as the masthead of the Sault Star.  The wolf masthead has become such an integral part of the Sault Star’s image that in the late 1970s when the wolf masthead was cancelled public outcry was so fierce that it was reinstated a few months later.  

James Curran oversaw the Sault Star until 1941 when his son Robert Curran succeeded him.  James Curran passed away in 1952 at the age of 86. Over the next two decades the Sault Star continued to be run by the Curran Family. During this time advances in technology propelled the Sault Star forward; the move from typesetting to electronic in the 1960s and in the 1970s cold type was introduced.  The newspaper underwent a minor name change in the 1975 when it dropped the word “Daily” from its title and continued to publish as simply the Sault Star.  

In 1975, the Curran family sold the Sault Star to Southam for a reported $3.4 million. The sale also included property on Old Garden River Road where the new 20,000-square-foot building would be built. The building where Sault Star presently resides was reported to cost $2.35 million and was unique as far as newspaper buildings since it is a single story building.  The Sault Star finally moved into its new building February 5, 1979 and has remained there ever since.  

Over the years the Sault Star has won awards for its design and layout in addition to journalism awards. The Sault Star has changed owners several times over the years and although the paper is no longer family owned it stands as a legacy of what James Curran created.  

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Each week, the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library and its Archives provides SooToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past.

Find out more of what the Public Library has to offer at www.ssmpl.ca and look for more Remember This? columns here