A group of volunteers including (top to bottom) North Tama Schools teacher Carly Warnke, North Tama senior Levi Zobel, Soren Peterson (hidden), David Ingle, and Don Stansbery move back issues of the Traer Star-Clipper and North Tama Telegraph into the former Star-Clipper Newsroom for storage in downtown Traer on Sept. 28. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Moving hand to hand – and across decades of history – the Traer Star-Clipper archives finally made it back home.

It was a fitting end last Wednesday to a precarious few years for back issues of the Traer Star-Clipper and North Tama Telegraph as a small, but determined ‘bucket brigade’ of volunteers used Traer’s downtown Winding Stairs to move the newspaper archives back to where it all began – into the former Star-Clipper Newsroom.

After languishing in the North Tama Telegraph’s deteriorating former office space located at 625 Second Street since permanently closing back in 2018, the archives have been top of mind for many people in Traer including members of the Traer Historical Museum.

Following the resignation of the Telegraph’s publisher Abigail Pelzer earlier this year, the decision was made by Marshalltown Newspaper’s managing editor Robert Maharry to donate the bound archive books including those dating back to the 1800s to the local museum.

Telegraph note: Both the North Tama Telegraph – which was created in 2020 following the consolidation of the Dysart Reporter and Traer Star-Clipper – and Marshalltown’s Times-Republican newspaper are owned by the same West Virginia company, Ogden Newspapers.

Traer Historical Museum volunteer coordinator Carol Boyce (left) accepts a Traer Star-Clipper archive book from North Tama teacher Carly Warnke (right) along the Winding Stairs’ catwalk on Wednesday, Sept. 28 in downtown Traer. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Prior to the Star-Clipper newsroom’s relocation in 1953 to its Second Street location adjacent to the fire station, the Traer Star-Clipper was published from the Star-Clipper-Canfield Building – in an upper-level office space that was and still is only accessible by way of Traer’s iconic Winding Stairs.

Once the decision was made to donate the archives to the Traer Historical Museum, collections manager Sharon Stoakes and Telegraph reporter Ruby McAllister got to work making the transfer possible – work which first included tracking down the books after they were mistakenly given to a concerned local citizen and placed in a storage shed.

After the archives’ location was again secured, Stoakes immediately contacted Nathan Arndt – Director and Chief Curator at the UNI Museum in Cedar Falls – for help evaluating the condition of the more than 120 archive volumes.

“The [archive books] were determined to be in good condition, with signs of ‘good mold’ which is easily removed,” Stoakes said. “They will be individually cleaned, boxed, then stored for safe keeping.”

The Traer Museum-owned Star-Clipper Newsroom – which has sat mostly empty since 1953 – will be professionally cleaned as well, Stoakes said, in preparation for the planned archive restoration work.

North Tama senior Levi Zobel (top) helps move the Traer Star-Clipper archives into storage alongside volunteer Soren Peterson (bottom) last Wednesday, Sept. 28 while positioned on the Winding Stairs in downtown Traer. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

As it stands today, most of the archives are now safely stored at the top of the Winding Stairs in the east side of the newsroom. A few volumes still remain at the Tama-Grundy Publishing office in Tama and will be donated to the museum as well.

Following the restoration work, the bound issues that have already been digitized will be kept in a small, air-conditioned room in the main museum in order to keep a constant humidity and temperature, according to Stoakes. Any undigitized issues will be housed in the museum’s accession storage room for public access.

For a paper that was founded in 1874 and 1878 – Clipper in ’74 and Star in ’78 – preserving the back issues for future generations was important to both Maharry and McAllister.

The editor/reporter pair also worked to donate the back issues of the Dysart Reporter to the Dysart Historical Society, and are currently working to donate the Gladbrook Northern-Sun Print archives to the Gladbrook Museum.

While a newspaper is certainly more than just its past issues, for a paper like the North Tama Telegraph – a paper that no longer has office space or any other assets beyond the weekly print edition coupled with an online presence – the archives have become more than just books.

Traer Historical Museum volunteer Don Stansbery hands off a volume of past issues of the Traer Star-Clipper to fellow museum volunteer David Ingle near the base of the Winding Stairs in downtown Traer on Sept. 28. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

The archives are now the heart of the paper.

Members of the volunteer ‘bucket brigade’ pictured at the base of the Winding Stairs in downtown Traer on Sept. 28, including (front row, l-r) Carol Boyce, Carly Warnke, Levi Zobel, and Sharon Stoakes; (back row, l-r) David Ingle, Soren Peterson, Don Stansberry, and Bruce Morrison. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

A stack of Traer Star-Clipper bound back issues rests in the former Star-Clipper Newsroom on Sept. 28. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Traer Star-Clipper and North Tama Telegraph archives – some dating back to the 1870s – rest on the floor of the former Star-Clipper Newsroom in downtown Traer on Sept. 28. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

The inside of the former Star-Clipper Newsroom in downtown Traer pictured on Wednesday, Sept. 28. PHOTO BY RUBY F. BODEKER

The inside of the former Star-Clipper Newsroom in downtown Traer pictured on Wednesday, Sept. 28. PHOTO BY RUBY F. BODEKER