Saguache newspaper is last of the ‘hot metal’ breed

Pigs were once an essential commodity in the production of newspapers, but today only one weekly newspaper in the United States has them. 

It’s The Saguache (Colo.) Crescent. This is the only newspaper in the country that still has a fully functional Linotype (albeit 100 years old) to set “hot metal” type for printing on a 100-year old letterpress. 

“Pig” is an affectionate printing industry term given to a bar of lead. Each weighing about 22.5 pounds, the pig fueled the Linotype typesetting machines that revolutionized newspaper typesetting in the 19th century. 

One traditional method of casting the ingots (or pigs) involved pouring molten lead from a kettle-like contraption into a central channel that typically fed six or more molds. The process reminded people of piglets feeding off a sow; hence the lead bars became pigs.

A unique feature of the Linotype was that “boiling lead, kept burbling in the belly of the machine, would shoot out and fill matrices, producing a solid and neatly cast ‘line o’ type’ that was pushed by the machine into a galley,” explained Glenn Fleishman of Seattle, Wash., a freelance journalist and editor.

Within today’s newspaper world, Dean Coombs stands out as a cult hero. He is the third generation of his family to run The Saguache Crescent out of a “taxi-cab yellow” building with dark green trim in funky downtown Saguache. 

“I’m the editor, publisher, owner and janitor,” Coombs said. “Then I look around and say, ‘If I’m the janitor, I should be fired.’” 

The Crescent is the official newspaper of record for Saguache County. The county’s paid legal notices are all that keep the paper alive. 

The newspaper has approximately 550 subscribers, about the entire population of Saguache. The readers are also the writers.

“If you bring it, and it’s not just absolute insanity, and you want to sign your name to it, then I’ll generally print it,” Coombs said. 

Hard copy only. There are no computers to plug into at The Crescent. No internet, email or cell phones either. Coombs punches in everything on his trusty Linotype, maintaining a second machine for backup. 

Saguache’s a hard place to find, and to get directions, you must know how to pronounce it. 

Mary Morfitt, a longtime resident, offers a tutorial. “It’s an Americanized version of a word in the Ute language. “Say ‘suh-WATCH’ (not ‘sag-u-AH-chee).’” 

The word means “water at the blue earth” (blue clay deposits) found in Saguache Creek that begins in the San Juan Mountains and flows through town. 

Fleishman said: “As you cross the threshold of the doorway at The Crescent, you are transported back in time. Shards of lead coat the floor; a charming sense of chaos fills the cavernous space.” 

“The paper itself is full of important stories, posts and announcements that have become the lifeblood of this small community. The positive vibe of the paper is a reflection of Dean Coombs’s demeanor. He doesn’t really print bad news – he leaves that stuff for others,” Fleishman said.

“Good news sells papers,” Coombs said. Fleishman is a subscriber. 

“Every other week I receive my papers (two editions come together) in the mail, and I try to catch up on what’s happening in Saguache,” Fleishman said. “I’ve developed a strange sense of ‘connection’ to a place I’ve only visited once. I know whose birthday it was last week, who died, who graduated and who visited – all of which I can’t say about my own neighborhood!”