According to Donald E. Oehlerts and an excerpt from the Guide to Colorado Newspapers 1859-1963, “Newspapers have served as community diaries in America since the early 18th century.  The newspaper, particularly the country weekly, has often provided the only record of community activity available to future historians.  For millions of citizens, the files of the local newspapers contain the only description of their lives and accomplishments.”There’s a long history associated with your Lincoln County newspapers and combining papers to create something better has happened before. Records found in Lincoln County show many papers previously published in Hugo from 1887, including the Stayer, Hugo Star, Hugo Advocate, Lincoln County Ledger, which continued later as the Range Ledger, Hugo Independent, the Hugo Times and the Lincoln County Democrat, which continued as your Eastern Colorado Plainsman in 1929.  Papers published in Arriba starting in 1889 included the Mirror, the Arriba Record (started by William Hoffman who is the great-great-grandfather of the current owners of the Leader, Michael Hoffman and Shalynn Richardson), and the Arriba Advocate. Genoa had the Genoa Sentinel started in 1912, also by William Hoffman, and the Genoa Guide which only lasted one year in 1938. The Limon Independent began in 1898 and was followed by the Limon Herald, the Limon Express, and the Eastern Colorado Leader, which combined with the Genoa Sentinel in 1939 and then became your Limon Leader in 1947.  We are locally owned. Family owned.  We live here. We have a long history with the newspapers in this area.  We combined the Eastern Colorado Plainsman and the Limon Leader in July of 2023 to become The Leader, serving all of Lincoln County.