{{Short description|Newspaper in Virginia City, Nevada}} {{Further|Mark Twain in Nevada}} {{Further|Mark Twain at the Territorial Enterprise}} {{Infobox newspaper | name = The Territorial Enterprise | logo = | image = | caption = | type = [[Daily newspaper]] | format = | owners = ''Territorial Enterprise'' Historical and Educational Foundation | founder = William Jernegan and Alfred James | publisher = | editor = | president = | chief_editor = | associate_editor = | managing_editor = | news_editor = | campus_editor = | campus_chief = | opinion_editor = | photo_editor = | staff_writers = | founded = December 18, 1858 | political_position = | language = English | ceased_publication = January 16, 1893 | relaunched = | headquarters = [[Virginia City, Nevada]] | circulation = | sister_newspapers = | ISSN = | oclc = | website = [http://www.territorial-enterprise.com www.territorial-<br>enterprise.com] | free = | image_alt = border | image_size = 250px | motto = | publishing_country = [[United States]] | circulation_date = }}
The '''''Territorial Enterprise''''', founded by William Jernegan and Alfred James on 18 December 1858, was a newspaper published in [[Virginia City, Nevada|Virginia City]], [[Nevada]]. Published for its first two years in [[Genoa, Nevada|Genoa]] in what was then [[Utah Territory]], new owners Jonathan Williams and J. B. Woolard moved the paper to [[Carson City, Nevada|Carson City]], the capital of the territory, in 1859.<ref name=AmJourn>{{cite book |title=[[wikisource:en:History of American Journalism|History of American Journalism]] |first=James Melvin |last=Lee |chapter=[[wikisource:en:History of American Journalism/Chapter 14|Chapter 14]] |year=1917 }}</ref> The paper changed hands again the next year; Joseph T. Goodman and Denis E. McCarthy moved it again, this time to Virginia City, in 1860.<ref name=AmJourn /><ref>''Territorial Enterprise'' On-Line Nevada Web site (http://onlinenevada.org/territorial_enterprise {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120406100607/http://onlinenevada.org/territorial_enterprise |date=2012-04-06 }}), Retrieved 9-24-2011.</ref>
[[File:Antique printing press at the Mark Twain Territorial Enterprise Museum, Virginia City, NV.jpg|thumb|right|Antique printing press powered by flat-belt, overhead line shaft, at the Mark Twain Museum at the ''Territorial Enterprise'', Virginia City, NV]]
Noted author [[Mark Twain]] wrote for the paper during the 1860s along with writer [[Dan DeQuille]]. To cover for DeQuille, who took time off to visit his family in Iowa, the young Sam Clemens was hired. Located steps from the ''Enterprise'' offices, Mark Twain and Dan DeQuille, lifelong friends, shared a room at 25 North B St. in Virginia City.
The paper was owned and operated by the Blake family in the 1890s through the 1920s.
The paper went out of publication for a while and was revived by Helen Crawford Dorst in 1946 and was later purchased and revived by author, journalist, and railroad historian [[Lucius Beebe]] and his long-time companion and co-author [[Charles Clegg]] on 2 May 1952.<ref>Territorial Enterprise and Virginia City News, Volume 98, No. 18 (Friday, May 2, 1952). It was priced at 15 cents a copy. The front page stories included the successful Virginia City Art Week, an article on the notables who would be writing for the paper, and a piece about Virginia City in the 1870s.</ref> Clegg and Beebe sold the ''Territorial Enterprise'' in 1961.<ref>"Territorial Enterprise Building," National Park Service Web site (http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/nevada/ter.htm), Retrieved 9-24-2011.</ref> [[File:Territorial Enterprise, 2010.JPG|thumb|right|''Territorial Enterprise'' building, Virginia City, NV]]
== History == [[Joseph T. Goodman]] was owner and editor of the ''Territorial Enterprise'' in the 1860s. He was succeeded by [[William Sharon]] who hired [[Rollin Daggett]] as managing editor in 1874.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.onlinenevada.org/territorial_enterprise |title=Territorial Enterprise |author=Ronald James |date=2009-03-20 |publisher=The Online Nevada Encyclopedia |access-date=2009-10-29 |archive-date=2016-01-11 |archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20160111044326/http://www.onlinenevada.org/territorial_enterprise |url-status=dead }}</ref> Charles Carroll Goodwin joined the staff in 1873, and was chief editor from 1875–1880, before moving on to ''[[The Salt Lake Tribune]]''. [[File:Composing table at the Mark Twain Territorial Enterprise Museum.jpg|thumb|right|Composing table at the Mark Twain Museum at the ''Territorial Enterprise'', Virginia City, NV]]
== Today == As of 2016, Thomas and Deborah Hayward are now the current owners of the Territorial Enterprise buildings and Mark Twain Museum at the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City, Nevada.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}
Thomas Muzzio is president of the ''Territorial Enterprise'' Historical and Educational Foundation, which maintains a Web site dedicated to preserving the legacy of the ''Territorial Enterprise'' and the history of journalism in the West.<ref>"Mission Statement," ''Territorial Enterprise'' Historical and Educational Foundation Web site (http://www.territorial-enterprise.com/foundation/mission.html), Retrieved 9-23-2011.</ref>
===Mark Twain Museum at the ''Territorial Enterprise''=== [[File:Mark Twain's desk at the Mark Twain Territorial Enterprise Museum, Virginia City, NV.jpg|thumb|right|Mark Twain's desk when he was editor of the ''Territorial Enterprise'']] The '''Mark Twain Museum at the ''Territorial Enterprise''''', a separate entity from the above, operates a museum in the original ''Territorial Enterprise'' building in Virginia City, NV. The museum features the original desk used by Mark Twain when he was editor of the paper. Other exhibits include antique printing presses, an early Linotype machine, a proof press, stone composing tables (one of which Mark Twain and other employees of the paper used to sleep on), and various other antiques.<ref>"Mark Twain Museum at the ''Territorial Enterprise''," VisitVirginiaCityNV Web site (http://www.visitvirginiacitynv.com/attractions_marktwain.aspx {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111113074552/http://www.visitvirginiacitynv.com/attractions_marktwain.aspx |date=2011-11-13 }}), Retrieved 9-24-2011.</ref><ref>"Mark Twain Museum at the ''Territorial Enterprise''," Nevada Museums, Travel Nevada Web (http://museums.travelnevada.com/destination/mark-twain-museum-at-the-territorial-enterprise.aspx {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111015085813/http://museums.travelnevada.com/destination/mark-twain-museum-at-the-territorial-enterprise.aspx |date=2011-10-15 }}), Retrieved 9-24-2011.</ref>
On 16 April 2019, an edition of the ''Territorial Enterprise'' was found in a [[time capsule]] from 1872 in the cornerstone of a demolished Masonic lodge in [[Reno, Nevada|Reno]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.apnews.com/a9b3b378e45d4479a63c633f764a9c7c|title = Reno's 1872 time capsule includes California Gold Rush lore|website = [[Associated Press]]|date = 17 April 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kolotv.com/content/news/Masonic_Lodge_time_capsule_opening-508499281.html|title = 1872 time capsule from Masonic Lodge opened in Reno| date=12 April 2019 }}</ref>
== Notes == {{reflist}}
== References == * {{cite book |last=Beebe |first=Lucius |author-link=Lucius Beebe |title=Comstock Commotion: The Story of the Territorial Enterprise and Virginia City News |url=https://archive.org/details/comstockcommotio00beeb |url-access=registration |year=1954 |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford, CA }}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070903051842/http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/nevada/ter.htm ''Territorial Enterprise'' Building] - includes museum contact, National Park Service *[http://www.visitvirginiacitynv.com/attractions/virginia-city-museums/list-of-museums.html#mktwainmuseum Mark Twain Museum at the ''Territorial Enterprise''] - Visit Virginia City, Nevada *{{HABS |survey=NV-15-9 |id=nv0052 |title=Mark Twain "Enterprise" Building, C Street, Virginia City, Storey County, NV |photos=1 |link=no}} *[https://unr.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01UNR_INST/146dp7v/alma991010831619706781 Enterprise Publishing Company records. Enterprise Publishing Company (Virginia City, Nev.) creator. 1874-1911]. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Reno.
{{Mark Twain|state=collapsed}}
[[Category:Newspapers published in Virginia City]] [[Category:Historic American Buildings Survey in Nevada]] [[Category:History of Storey County, Nevada]] [[Category:Newspapers established in 1858]] [[Category:Mark Twain]] [[Category:1858 establishments in Utah Territory]] [[Category:Mass media in Carson City, Nevada]]