175 years of the Register: See a timeline, 50 photos from Register and Iowa history

Newspapers were never made to last all that long. The Iowa Star is an exception.

The sturdy, linen rag paper has endured better than modern newsprint, which would long ago have crumbled to dust.

Contained in a bound volume at an Iowa State Historical Society warehouse, it is nevertheless tattered, deeply crinkled and patched in places with ancient, yellowed tape. A bit more than half the front page is missing. But the date and volume of the edition remain intact: July 26, 1849, Volume 1, No. 1.

That artifact ― the first newspaper printed in what is now Des Moines ― is the seed from which grew the Des Moines Register, which this month is celebrating its 175th year.

The Star's founding editor, Barlow Granger, printed it by hand, one copy at a time on a basic press that had been hauled west by horse and wagon across rudimentary roads. Granger, also a lawyer and land agent, worked from a log cabin at Fort Des Moines, a disused military installation at the confluence of the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers.

Just three years after statehood, the nascent town around the fort numbered only a few hundred souls, but it was growing fast. In 1851, it would become a city, and in 1857, Iowa's capital.

Iowa, Des Moines and the Register have grown up together in the years since. It's a history filled with bold leadership, big ideas and groundbreaking innovations. As part of our 175th anniversary celebration, here's a timeline of how the Register from that humble beginning became the purveyor of "The News Iowa Depends On," as promised by its motto, and the winner of 17 Pulitzer Prizes, the newspaper industry's highest honor.

Historical timeline of the Des Moines Register

1849 On July 26, Barlow Granger, a busy lawyer and land agent, launches the Iowa Star, the first newspaper in the growing settlement around the former site of Fort Des Moines, at the confluence of the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers. It won't become a city until 1851.

1850 Facing competitors and financial challenges, Granger turns the weekly paper over to a partner, Judge Curtis Bates.

1854 Sold to S.W. Hill & Co., the Iowa Star shuts down in August.

1855 The Star changes hands again. New owner Will Tomlinson relaunches it and renames it the Iowa Statesman.

1856 Thomas Sypherd and A.J. Stephens begin publishing a second newspaper, the Iowa Citizen. John Teesdale takes control of it in 1857, the year Fort Des Moines becomes the Iowa capital and drops "Fort" from its name.

1860 Teesdale renames the Iowa Citizen the Iowa State Register. Sold in 1861 to Frank W. Palmer, it becomes Des Moines' first daily newspaper in 1862.

1868 Frank Mills becomes publisher of the Register and expands the scope of its coverage to be statewide.

1870 The Register's editor, James "Ret" Clarkson, joins his father, Coker, and brother Richard to purchase the paper, which they will own and operate for the next 32 years. They enlarge and modernize it, with better-organized news columns, larger, bolder headlines and features like a women's section, courthouse reports and a gossip column. Later, photos and engravings accompany stories. The Register's reach and influence grow.

Also in 1870, the Iowa State Leader succeeds the Iowa Statesman.

1902 George Roberts of Fort Dodge partners with Samuel Strauss, owner of the since-renamed Des Moines Leader, to buy the Iowa State Register and merge the competing publications. Roberts hires veteran journalist Harvey Ingham of Algona as editor, a role the already-seasoned journalist will occupy for 40 years.

1903 Roberts, busy in his other job as director of the U.S. Mint, finds running the Register and Leader long distance more of a challenge than he cares to continue. Ingham persuades Algona friend and banker Gardner Cowles to buy the paper. Simpson University history professor emeritus William B. Friedricks in his history of the Register before its sale to the Gannett Co. writes of how Cowles' son Gardner "Mike" Cowles will later describe the Cowles-Ingham pairing: "Their individual talents were perfectly complementary. Father was the quintessential business manager, who delighted in the minutiae of circulation and accounting. Ingham was the quintessential editor who delighted in rooting out the news and advocating ideas."

The Cowles family will own the paper and its associated enterprises for more than 80 years.

1906 Under Gardner Cowles and Ingham's leadership, the Register and Leader's circulation doubles. Jay N. "Ding" Darling joins the staff as editorial cartoonist, and his work appears regularly on Page 1.

1907 Charles D. Hellen founds the Des Moines Tribune on the east side, with what he says is a "mission to correct the erroneous judgments of the older journal on the west side and to stir up the animals generally." Cowles takes it over the following year and publishes it as the afternoon sister paper of the morning Register.

1915 The Register and Leader becomes the Des Moines Register.

1918 After a 1915 fire destroys the Register's building at Fourth Street and Court Avenue, the paper moves to a new, 13-story office tower at 715 Locust St. The building, repeatedly expanded, will remain its home until 2013.

1920 Gardner Cowles' eldest son, John, graduates from Harvard and joins the Register and Tribune staff.

1922 John Cowles organizes the Register and Tribune Syndicate, which will become the national distributor of comic strips like "The Family Circus" and "Spiderman," editorial cartoons from prominent artists including Herblock (Herbert L. Block), and columns by pundits such as David Horowitz.

Also in 1922, the Register and Tribune launches one of the nation's first commercial radio stations, WGF.

1924 Gardner Cowles buys the Des Moines News and combines it with the Des Moines Tribune. Darling wins the first of the Register's 17 Pulitzer Prizes for his editorial cartoon, "In Good Old USA."

1925 Gardner Cowles' younger son, Gardner "Mike" Cowles Jr., graduates from Harvard and joins the paper.

1926 The Register launches its Big Peach sports section, printed on peach-colored paper. Under the leadership of sports editor Garner "Sec" Taylor, it becomes one of the most respected sports sections in the United States despite Iowa's lack of major professional sports teams.

1927 The sole remaining local competitor to the Register and Tribune, the Des Moines Capital, is purchased and merged with the Tribune.

1928 The Cowles brothers, taking an increasing hand in the operation of the Register and Tribune, buy the first full-time, newspaper-owned airplane in the United States. The Good News I, named in a reader contest, aids in the newspapers' statewide newsgathering. It is one of a series of Register and Tribune aircraft that later will include helicopters.

1931 The Cowles family purchases radio stations in Cedar Rapids, Ottumwa and Clarinda. The latter, WSO, is moved to Des Moines.

1933 Richard Wilson opens the Register and Tribune's Washington bureau. He will go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.

1935 The Cowles family buys the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and John Cowles moves there to lead the new acquisition. Meanwhile, the Cedar Rapids radio station purchased in 1931 is moved to Des Moines and becomes KRNT (for Register 'n' Tribune). It shares a studio atop the Register and Tribune building with WSO.

The Register and the Tribune become the first newspapers in Iowa to have wirephoto service.

1937 Mike Cowles launches Look magazine, a photo-heavy biweekly competing with Life magazine. Editorial offices eventually move to New York. The magazine ceases publication in 1971.

1943 William Wesley Waymack, winner of the Pulitzer in 1938 for editorial writing, succeeds the retiring Ingham as editor. The Register launches the Iowa Poll, the first ongoing state-level poll by a newspaper. It will gain stature in later years as a trusted barometer of voter sentiment in the nationally important Iowa presidential caucuses.

Shipping out in October 1943 and continuing to November 1945, columnist Gordon Gammack roams the western front, covering Iowans in World War II. As Associated Press General Manager Wes Gallagher wrote in "Gordon Gammack: Columns from Three Wars," his technique was simple: "I am Gordon Gammack of the Des Moines Register and Tribune. Anyone from Iowa here?" Gammack would go on to cover Iowa's soldiers in the Korean War and Vietnam War.

1946 Gardner Cowles dies at 85 after 43 years as publisher of the Register and Tribune, succeeded by son Gardner "Mike" Cowles Jr. A few months later, longtime circulation manager William Cordingley, who worked to build the newspaper carrier corps that delivered the Register and Tribune to every corner of Iowa, also dies.

1948 By now circulating far more papers across Iowa than in Des Moines alone, the Register continues to grow. The company builds four- and seven-story additions to its Locust Street building.

1949 The Register and Tribune celebrate their 100th birthday as the Register's Sunday circulation peaks at 550,000. Des Moines' population at this point is about 178,000. No U.S. city has a more positive disparity between its size and the circulation of its leading daily newspaper.

1950 Continuing the celebration of their 100th year, the Register and Tribune unveil a 19-foot circumference, highly detailed globe in the newspapers' lobby that rotates every four minutes, surrounded by 24 electronic clocks that display the time in various global cities. The globe now is displayed in the Iowa State Historical Museum.

Luther Hill becomes publisher of the Register and Tribune.

1953 Kenneth MacDonald succeeds Waymack as editor. He will continue in that role for 21 years.

1954 Future publisher David Kruidenier, grandson of Gardner Cowles, joins the Register staff.

1955 The Register and Tribune launch TV station KRNT. It is renamed KCCI in 1974 (for Cowles Communications Inc.) and sold in 1984.

1959 Pioneer Memorial Stadium is renamed for Register sports editor Sec Taylor, who helped persuade the Chicago Cubs to locate their top minor league team in Des Moines. The name will endure until 2004, when a successor stadium is renamed Principal Park. The playing field, however, retains Taylor's name.

1960 Spun off from the Register and Tribune, Cowles Magazines and Cowles Broadcasting merge. In 1965, the company becomes Minneapolis-based Cowles Communications Inc., with holdings that include TV and radio stations, newspapers and even a budding cable television system. The Register and Tribune Co. likewise is making other media acquisitions.

1966 Kenneth MacDonald, editor of the Register and Tribune, is named publisher, as well.

1967 A second four-story addition is built on the Register and Tribune's Locust Street building.

1970 David Kruidenier becomes publisher of the Register and Tribune, succeeding MacDonald. He will become president and board chair in 1978, with his tenure lasting for the remainder of the Cowles family's ownership.

1973 On a lark, two Register writers pitch their editors on the idea of riding across Iowa on their bicycles and writing stories along the way. The bosses agree, if the writers invite readers along. Donald Kaul and John Karras call their adventure The Great Six-Day Bike Trip, which in a few years gets its permanent name: RAGBRAI, the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.

1974 Michael Gartner, a Des Moines native and Page 1 editor of the Wall Street Journal, becomes editor of the Register and Tribune.

1982 With debt from acquisitions mounting for the Register amid a deep recession, the afternoon Des Moines Tribune ceases publication with its Sept. 25 edition, one of many afternoon newspapers to disappear in the 1970s and '80s. James Gannon succeeds Gartner as editor.

1983 Gary C. Gerlach becomes publisher of the Register.

1984 The Register's Thanksgiving Day edition announces it is co-sponsoring Iowa CARES (the Campaign to Aid Relief of Ethiopian Starvation), a statewide fundraising campaign to save starving children in drought-stricken Ethiopia. The initiative involves two worldwide hunger relief groups, and Gov. Terry Branstad is co-chair. It is modeled after Iowa SHARES, the program initiated in 1979 under Gov. Robert Ray that raised $500,000 to aid refugees in Cambodia and Thailand. Iowa CARES in turn morphs into Embrace Iowa, the Register's ongoing annual holiday giving campaign, which asks readers to help fellow Iowans in need. Not a dime of donations has gone to administration; 100% of the millions of dollars raised has gone directly to Iowans.

1985 The Register is sold to Gannett Co. for about $200 million after a bidding war among leading newspaper companies. Charlie Edwards, great-grandson of Gardner Cowles, becomes Register publisher, succeeding Kruidenier, who, as the deal closes, says, "The state of Iowa is a better place today because of The Register."

1988 Geneva Overholser becomes the first female editor of the Register, serving until 1995. Under her tenure, the Register breaks new ground with a series profiling a rape victim and her ongoing trauma. Written by reporter Jane Schorer Meisner, the series seeks to destigmatize victims of the crime and, with her permission, names the woman, Nancy Ziegenmeyer, making the Register one of the first U.S. newspapers to break that unwritten rule. The series goes on to win the most prestigious of Pulitzer Prizes, for public service.

1990 With the cost of circulating the paper statewide rising, the Register declares its focus will be on central Iowa. But reporters also still covered Iowans around the world. "Iowa Boy" columnist Chuck Offenburger heads to the Middle East in December 1990 and returns for six weeks in early 1991, traveling to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq, to cover Iowans in the Gulf War.

1991 The first references to desmoinesregister.com, the Register's website, appear in the Register's print edition.

1993 A historic flood leaves the Register's downtown offices without power or water for more than a week, but the Register rallies from a makeshift newsroom in a West Des Moines hotel to publish special editions that keep readers informed about disaster relief and recovery.

1995 Dennis Ryerson becomes editor of the Register.

1996 Barbara Henry succeeds Edwards as publisher, marking the end of Cowles family involvement in the paper. She is the first female publisher of the paper.

1998 Ground is broken for a new printing plant on Des Moines' southside. Opened in 2000, it now prints not only the Register, but the Ames Tribune, the Iowa City Press-Citizen, the Cedar Rapids Gazette, the Sioux Falls (South Dakota) Argus Leader, the Kansas City Star and numerous other publications.

In September 1998, the Register announces it will begin to publish its top stories and breaking news on the web at www.desmoinesregister.com.

1999 The Register marks its 150th year.

2000 Mary Stier succeeds Henry as publisher.

2002 Paul Anger becomes editor of the Register.

2003 In July, Iowa Columnist John Carlson heads to Iraq, continuing the Register's tradition of sending reporters to cover Iowa soldiers at war. His equipment reflects changing communications technology. In addition to his flak jacket and combat helmet, he carries a camera, a satellite phone, a laptop computer and a data transmission unit. Carlson returns to Iraq in fall 2005.

2005 Carolyn Washburn becomes editor of the Register.

The Register adds video to its online offerings, covering homecomings of Iowa National Guard troops who have been stationed for almost a year in Iraq.

2007 Laura Hollingsworth becomes publisher of the Register. Layoffs extend over the coming decade as revenues decline, yet the Register's Pulitzer wins continue, in 2010, for photography, and in 2018 for editorial writing.

2011 Rick Green becomes editor of the Register.

In March, reporter Tony Leys and photographer Rodney White embed with Iowa National Guard troops serving in eastern Afghanistan, covering the largest deployment of Iowa troops since World War II, involving about 2,800 soldiers.

People to Watch, profiles of dreamers and doers who are expected to make headlines in the coming year, becomes an annual Des Moines Register holiday season series.

2013 The paper moves from its 95-year home at 715 Locust St. to Capital Square. Amalie Nash becomes editor of the Register as Green is named publisher.

2015 David Chivers becomes publisher of the Register. He is not replaced when he departs in 2018.

2016 The Register launches the Des Moines Storytellers Project, dedicated to the idea that oral storytelling and journalism have the same goals: serving and reflecting a community while fostering empathy. It moves to different venues in its early years, but now presents its shows at historic Hoyt Sherman Place.

2016 Carol Hunter, the current editor of the Register, succeeds Nash.

2018 Register editorial writer Andie Dominick wins the Register's most recent Pulitzer Prize.

2019 New Media Investment Group, parent company of the Gatehouse Media newspaper chain, acquires Gannett, and Gatehouse assumes the Gannett name. The combined company is the nation's largest newspaper publisher by circulation. In Iowa, Gannett, already owner of the Register and the Iowa City Press-Citizen, also acquires the Ames Tribune and The Hawk Eye of Burlington. The Hawk Eye is sold in 2022.

2022: With its website and social media now at the forefront of readership, the Register ceases its print edition on Saturdays and most holidays, providing subscribers online facsimile editions instead.

2023 Veteran Register advertising executive Shannon Welch becomes general manager, a new role with duties akin to being publisher, a position vacant since David Chivers' 2018 departure.

RAGBRAI, the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, makes its 50th cross-state trek. The Register marks the occasion by producing an hour-long film, "SHIFT: The RAGBRAI Documentary," which premieres at the Varsity Cinema.

2024 The Register marks its 175th birthday on July 26.

Compiled by Bill Steiden, Des Moines Register business and investigations editor.

Sources: Des Moines Register archives; "Covering Iowa: The History of the Des Moines Register and Tribune Company, 1849-1985" by William B. Friedricks; Iowa State Historical Society; "Pages of History: The Des Moines R e gister Since 1849" ; newspapers.com

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: 175 years of the Register: See a timeline, 50 photos from Register and Iowa history