About Us: The Sierra Sun through the years and today

Name and location(s):

Sierra Sun

12315 Deerfield Drive

Truckee, Calif., 96161

(530) 587-6061

Alternate mailing address:

PO Box 2973

Truckee, Calif. 96160



Tahoe City office:

3090 North Lake Blvd., Ste. 2

Tahoe City, Calif. 96145

(530) 583-3487

When was it founded and by whom?

The Sierra Sun is one of the oldest newspapers in California, with roots going back to the gold rush era of the 1860s. The Sun and its predecessors have been published in Truckee since 1869. According to some fact and a little fiction, the Sun debuted as the Truckee Tribune in 1869 by N.W. Ferguson. E. B. Boust was the first editor.

The ownership of the Sierra Sun

Following Ferguson's Truckee Tribune, the Truckee Republican was founded in 1872 by publisher B.T. K. Preston, who closed down his Grass Valley Republican and shifted operations to Truckee. About the same time, and only for a few years, a weekly called the Morning Sun published about 20 miles from Truckee in a now abandoned mining area.

The Truckee paper had a long string of owners and editors until the early 1930s when then publisher Stanley Bavieer — an ardent Democrat — appended the title to the Truckee Republican and The Sierra Sun. He was killed in an automobile accident while holding the dual title of publisher and editor.

At least four publishers of the paper served in the state legislature and at least two editors have been shot to death while on the job.

In 1936 Walter Barrett purchased the paper and owned the Sierra Sun until March 21, 1967. At that time the Sun was purchased by Scripps League Newspapers. The Sun became twice weekly for several years as a sister newspaper to the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza.

In 1980, the Sierra Sun became property of Mount Rose Publishing Company, a corporation headed at the time by Philip Swift of Swift Newspapers Inc. in Carson City, Nevada, and James McClatchy, chairman of the board of McClatchy Newspapers. The Tahoe World represented the other newspaper that became part of Mount Rose Publishing Company. That arrangement continued until 1998 when McClatchy's interest was bought out and Mount Rose Publishing Company became solely owned by Swift Newspapers, now named Swift Communications.

History as to the frequency of publications?

Until 2003, the Sun had been a weekly newspaper, except for a brief period in the 1970s. It expanded in 2003 to a twice-weekly publication, and then in 2006 to a five-day-a-week daily. In 2009, the Sun went back to a twice-weekly publication schedule.

Today's publication schedule and circulation figures

Publishes Wednesdays and Fridays, 6,200 circulation.

Total region served and anything of special interest about the area:

We cover North Lake Tahoe (from the West Shore to Incline Village), Truckee, Donner Summit, and all of the communities in between.