The most successful newspaper in Leelanau County has been the Leelanau Enterprise-Tribune, but there have been a number of other newspapers in the county through the years as well.

Since the Enterprise's beginning on an autumn day in early October 1877, by B.H. Derby, the paper has not missed a weekly publication. As of this writing (April 22, 2006), 6,630 issues of the Enterprise-Tribune have been published.

When the Enterprise began, its home was in the Village of Northport, which was the county seat of Leelanau County. When the county seat moved to Leland in January 1883, the Enterprise moved with it, and was published there until 2000 when it moved to Lake Leelanau.

The second publisher of the Enterprise was W.C. Nelson, beginning in 1879, and he published the paper until 1925, longer than anyone. Dayton Selby was publisher from 1925 to 1939, being succeeded by Gerold Selby, publisher until 1943. From 1943 to 1948, the paper was published by Fred and Julia Dickinson. Julia wrote a column called "Leelanau Lookout," which continued until June 1967. She later reported on news from the Glen Lake area for the paper, and wrote "The Story of Leelanau," published in 1951.

In 1948, the Enterprise was sold to Karl and Clarice Detzer, and in March 1950, the Northport Tribune, begun in 1942, was purchased by the Detzers. Their paper became the Leelanau Enterprise-Tribune, which they sold to Don Gorden and E.J. Ziebell in 1951.

In 1961, Mr. Gorden was succeeded by C.G. Egeler, and he and Mr. Ziebell were the publishers until 1975, when they sold the paper to Richard Kerr. Since 1997, the paper's owner and publisher has been Alan Campbell.

The Leelanau Enterprise-Tribune has had some unique mastheads. Since 1877, the title of the paper has been printed in old English style lettering. When the Dickinsons published the paper three drawings appeared under the title, compliments of Fred Dickinson. On the left was a picture of the fishing boat harbor (Fishtown) in Leland with a Great Lakes ship drawn in. The
middle picture was an early map of Leelanau County, published when Lake Leelanau village was called Provemont, and there were the villages of Good Harbor and North Unity. The picture on the right was a farm with a cornfield, and a quail perched on a fence. There was a cherry branch to the right of the farm, and one of the Manitou Islands was in the background, as well as another Great Lakes ship sailing. Later, only the two ships from the illustrations appeared, and today, only the old English letters of the paper's title remain.

Like most weekly newspapers, the Enterprise-Tribune publishes local news only. About the only times other news was reported was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, and President Kennedy's murder in November 1963. Some editorials also dealt with state or national issues.

In December 1944 and January 1946, the Enterprise published special history editions, which covered events and stories of interest of the early history of Leelanau County, and annual history sections have been published every latter part of winter since 1986.

Advertisements appeared on the front pages in the early days, but are now on the inside pages, and classified ads have their own section in the paper. One regularly printed classified ad is worth noting, because the man who ran it was a fixture in Leelanau County. During the 1970's, Preston Smith's ad offered a free search service for old and out-of-print books, and he could be reached at Box No. 2 in Omena. He also reported on happenings in the Omena area for the Enterprise-Tribune until he passed away.

The Leelanau Enterprise did not have a monopoly on newspaper publishing in Leelanau. In
addition to the Northport Tribune, that village also had the Leelanau Tribune in the early 1870's, Leelanau Co. News until 1915, and the Northport Leader from 1903 to 1941. Empire had the Leelanaw Leader in the 1890's, Empire Leader until 1901, and Empire Journal from 1901 to about 1914. Provemont (now Lake Leelanau) had the Courier until it moved to Suttons Bay
in 1921, and published until November 1960. Suttons Bay also had the Tribune in the 1880's, and the Bazoo. There were also the Suttons Bay Telephone in 1882, and the Leelanau News in the 1910's. The Suttons Bay Courier's final competitor in the village was the Leelanau Co. Times from 1947 to 1949. Other newspapers in Leelanau County were the Burdickville Meteor in the 1870's, the Leelanau Republican in Greilickville in 1890-1891, and the Maple City Mirror. Cedar also had its own weekly newspaper.

Today, the only other source of print news in addition to The Leelanau Enterprise is the Glen Arbor Sun, published by Norman Wheeler. On the internet, Andrew McFarlane's leelanau.com (www.leelanau.com/news) has published continuously since March of 1998, and the Leelanau Post (www.leelanaupost.com) since 2005.

~ Thomas Baird

[Updated 4/23/06]