By R. Braiden Trapp

Editor’s note: ISWNE asked the author to write an article about his father, Robert Trapp, a leader in community journalism for more than a half-century, a past president of ISWNE, and a winner of the Eugene Cervi Award for public service through community journalism.

Despite having published a handwritten newspaper as a sixth grader, Robert Trapp wasn't sure whether he wanted to go into journalism or forestry when it was time to decide on a college major.

After two years of military duty during World War II, Trapp had the GI Bill, with which he could pay for college. He chose journalism. After his junior year at the University of Colorado in Boulder, he broke into the newspaper business landing a summer job at the Alamosa (Colo.) Courier selling subscriptions. After two weeks he'd sold two.

"I knew then, sales was not my calling," Trapp said in a May 2006 interview.

He was offered a job writing sports which at the end of summer morphed into a reporter position, which meant the end of school. "My GI Bill had run out and I wanted to be a reporter, so that was the end of school."

His next stop was as a reporter in New Bern, N.C., where he got his first taste of race relations. There were two high schools in the town — one white, one black. The paper didn't cover the black school, which was treated as though it didn't exist.

"I told the editor, they've got this quarterback who can throw the ball a country mile. That was sports news," Trapp said. "They wouldn't let me write about it or print what I wrote so when I got a letter from the editor of the Rock Springs (Wyo.) Rocket offering me a position, I packed up and left."

More corporate lessons

The letter had come through the prompting of a friend, Bill Birkett, whom he had worked with in Alamosa and knew the Rocket managing editor. Birkett told the managing editor he'd do well to hire him, and the 6,000-circulation Rocket was a step up in his career as he became news editor with a staff of two reporters.

While he was in Rock Springs, Ruth Souter and her friend Annette Edwards drove from Washington, D.C. to see the West and find jobs. They ran out of money in Denver and started looking for work.

Souter, a journalism graduate with news experience in Washington, D.C., was hired as a reporter at the Rocket. Propinquity guided fate and Souter and Trapp found they shared news philosophies and world views.

Rock Springs was a company town at the time, ruled by the Union Pacific Railroad and its coal industry and Trapp said stories critical of the company were not encouraged.

"We did get a story past the managing editor about a big shot at Union Pacific who was in a late-night car accident with a woman who was not his wife," Trapp said. "If we could keep it quiet we would work on a story and get it in late night; then we could get it past the managing editor."

If questioned later, Trapp would defend his decision to run the story because it was legitimate news and that was hard for the publisher or managing editor to argue against.

When the Union Pacific converted its engines from coal to diesel, it closed its mines in the Rock Springs area and miners were laid off two weeks before Christmas. The lay-off notice was posted in the window of the company store. A front-page picture of the notice was not appreciated by Rocket management.

When Trapp was offered a position on the Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune, he accepted and moved on. He was a "slot man," working at a horseshoe-shaped desk with various editors seated side-by-side.

"There was a city editor, state editor, sports and local. I was the sports, editing copy, mostly wire, and composed about eight to 10 pages a shift."

The 40,000-circulation Great Falls Tribune was the largest paper in the state at the time, putting out three editions a day. Trapp worked the night shift, finishing past midnight most nights.

"It wasn't a good local paper," he said. "They ran a lot of wire and had few reporters. But it was the only large daily that wasn't chain-owned. The Warden family owned it."

Trapp said he made two trips back to Rock Springs to see Ruth, who had succeeded him as editor at the Rocket.

"You know how far it is from Great Falls to Rock Springs?" he said. "I made that drive once from Great Falls. When I made it a second time, we decided to get married."

The two married in 1954 and Ruth moved to Great Falls where she landed her own cooking show on television.

Española's needs

While the two were in Great Falls, Birkett and his wife, Hollie, moved to Trapp's old paper in Alamosa. Trapp and Birkett were still in touch and had the notion of starting their own paper. Birkett approached his publisher in Alamosa who suggested they look at Española, N.M., a town that needed a newspaper.

Birkett made the relatively short trip, liked what he saw, and reported back to the Trapps in Montana.

The Trapps made the trip to Colorado in May 1956 and then they and the Birketts trekked south to Española, met with a room full of local businessmen and found their response positive. Most of those present were willing to lend the four some startup capital.

At the time of closing the deal that same month, eight businessmen each loaned them $500, three doctors added $250 each and several smaller loans brought the total to more than $5,000. The Trapps and Birketts had each accumulated $3,800 through saving or by borrowing from family and friends.

Española State Bank agreed to a $20,000 note for all the equipment. The caveat was that should the Sun go under, A.E. Heihnson, who sold the Sun the equipment, would buy it all back for the amount remaining on the note.

What's in a name?

On one of the early negotiation trips from Española the name was established. The Rio Grande had to figure prominently as the river separated what was then Española and Riverside, two distinct areas. New Mexico is the sunshine state so the sun had to be in it. On their first trip to Española the partners had been captivated by Black Mesa, rising out of the river valley south of Española.

They put it all together and came up with Rio Grande Sun. The publication name was wrapped around the iconic mountain and an artist friend designed the logo. Over 50 years many editors have suggested changing it but it has withstood the parade. Redesign experts cringe when they view the old style. Enter a front page in any national newspaper contest and the first remark will be about the nameplate.

Setting up shop

The equipment started to trickle in in August 1956. The 1904 Miehle hand-fed flat bed press came from Chicago in pieces, the small job printing press from Salt Lake City and a Linotype from Denver. The old bank building on Oñate Street was vacant and after the back wall was removed, the equipment took up residence where bankers’ offices once stood.

Everyone shared one bathroom. "I don't know how the bank did it with one bathroom," Trapp said. "And there was no hot water. I eventually bought a little five-gallon water heater and had it installed."

The first issue came off the Miehle Oct. 5, 1956, 24 hours late. It was 16 pages with 6,000 circulation, 5,000 of which went to Los Alamos, still a closed city.

Los Alamos circulation had been promised to local advertisers who were anxious to coax the scientific community down the hill to spend money in Española. In Los Alamos at the time, there was little retail, no car dealers, one grocery store, one bank and no newspaper. Most of the Los Alamos circulation was by third-class postage.

Valley News bought

The existing newspaper in Española, the Valley News, owned by Robert McKinney’s Santa Fe New Mexican, was weak in news and the business community jumped ship with the Sun's first issue. However, with his influence through the New Mexican, McKinney maintained the national and legal advertising and did a good job of making trouble for the Sun.

The Sun had hired two printers and McKinney put the International Typographical Union onto them and the Sun reluctantly became the only union weekly in the state.

With the Valley News' failing revenue, McKinney offered to buy the Sun in early 1958. The partners declined and made a counter offer to buy the Valley News. Following a meeting in Pojoaque, midway between the two papers, a deal was struck.

The Sun bought the Española Valley News June 23, 1958. Through the agreement, the Sun became the sole provider of news, picked up the national and legal advertising in return for a percent of the national advertising revenues.

"That was a good deal for us because we didn't have to pay out any money," Trapp said. "He just got a small percent of the national ads for a few years. It didn't amount to much."

McKinney, a savvy business and newspaperman, sorely underestimated the Sun and realized his mistake almost immediately, but part of the sales agreement held McKinney to a non-compete agreement for 10 years.

Not for sale

After some personal problems, Bill Birkett left the Sun July 30, 1959, and with him went one-fourth of the interest in the newspaper. The Sun eventually bought Birkett's share, leaving three partners, the Trapps and Hollie Birkett.

However, McKinney now felt the Sun was vulnerable and thought Trapp might reconsider selling and despite the non-compete contract, McKinney started another newspaper in Española, a branch of the New Mexican.

"I was a little concerned when I heard the news," Trapp said. "Then I saw the first issue and knew it wouldn't last long." It didn't.

McKinney would make several runs at the Rio Grande Sun.

He sent his business manager, Emory Bahr, to make an offer at a meeting at the Granada Restaurant, across from the Sun. Trapp declined the "real money" offer.

A few years later McKinney persuaded a radio station manager to come to Española and make an offer for the paper. The man later admitted McKinney had offered him the editorship of the New Mexican if he got the remaining partners to sell.

The next run at the Sun was by New Mexico author Max Evans. However, Trapp said it didn't seem like a very serious pitch, as Evans' heart wasn't really in it.

The next puppet was a Los Alamos banker who said he had a man from Oklahoma interested in buying. He would not divulge the buyer's identity. Trapp wondered aloud why someone from Oklahoma would want a property they'd never seen. Then he turned down the offer.

Marion Khreibel, of Kansas, a major newspaper broker at the time, made the next offer on the Sun. Again the buyer could not be identified and Khreibel said Trapp would have to pay a 25 percent commission. Trapp said it would be easier and more lucrative to drive down the road and sell it to McKinney and get 100 percent of the deal.

McKinney finally invited Trapp to "The Farm" in Nambé. There, after a lunch of lamb chops, he made another offer, which was eventually turned down.

The next offer came with an invitation to the New Mexican office in Santa Fe. The dollar amounts kept getting bigger, but Trapp had no idea what he'd do if he sold the Sun. McKinney suggested he go buy another paper.

"But I have one now," Trapp countered.

Needless to say 50 years have gone by and the Trapps own 100 percent of the Sun, having bought out Hollie (Birkett) Sowerwine's one-quarter interest, although she and the Trapps remained very close friends until her death in 1990.

Focus on the Valley

In the meantime, the weekly Los Alamos Monitor was started and the Sun shifted its news coverage largely to Española and Rio Arriba County, although through a stringer, Gerry Machovec, it did some aggressive reporting of Los Alamos events.

Trapp realized from his experience at other newspapers that government and politics weren't properly covered. Now he had his own vehicle and he was going to do it right.

Trapp was no stranger to politics. His father had been county clerk and justice of the peace in Rio Grande County in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, an uncle was governor of Oklahoma and another was a state senator representing the San Luis Valley.

Rio Arriba politics have always been fascinating and an important part of the Sun's news coverage. The mayor in Española when the Trapps arrived was Joe E. Roybal, and Emilio Naranjo had just been chosen chairman of the Democratic party. The Sun's coverage of Naranjo's rise to power and subsequent control of county government for four decades is an important part of the Sun's 50-year history.

There were two Republicans elected in the November 1956 general election in Rio Arriba County which hasn't happened since. The Democrats were firmly in control and Naranjo was leading them.

The underdog was Matias Chacon, an Española lawyer, who navigated the political waters sufficiently to get himself elected to the state senate despite Naranjo's opposition.

Trapp got his political basic training in these early races and in the late 1960s had a firm grasp of the political climate. It drove the news and drove his editorial writing.

Politics aren't unique to Rio Arriba, Trapp said, "they are just more open here, but there won't be another Emilio Naranjo."

People are more educated, more enlightened and more informed now. He hopes he's played some part in the process. The leader of the group slowly replacing Naranjo's old guard is Alfredo Montoya, an experienced politician who can't seem to get everyone on the same page. "He hasn't proven himself yet," Trapp said.

Courthouse raid

One of the biggest stories the Sun covered was the courthouse raid in Tierra Amarilla June 5, 1967. The raiders were attempting to regain land that they claimed had been awarded their ancestors by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. It was a Monday and Trapp and editor Milt Lowe heard a state police car speed by the office. (There was only one bridge across the Rio Grande then.) "We wondered aloud what was going on," Trapp said. "Then another went by."

He called state police central dispatch and was told "All hell's broke loose in T.A., Bob. The judge is on the roof and they're shooting people."

He and Lowe headed north and around Cebolla, just south of Tierra Amarilla, they passed deputy Dan Rivera in his car, headed south at a normal rate of speed.

"I said to Milt, 'Where is Dan going?' Later we found out Baltazar Martinez had taken Rivera and Albuquerque Journal writer Larry Calloway hostage, and commandeered Dan's car to flee the scene" Trapp said. The two were released unharmed later.

When Trapp and Lowe arrived in T.A. it was less chaotic than they expected. A state policeman had been shot and an ambulance arrived to take him to Española. Reies Lopez Tijerina, instigator of the raid, and his followers had scattered into the hills.

The judge in question, James Scarborough, had locked himself and his clerk in the judge's chambers. They escaped unharmed when the raiders fled. Trapp and Lowe tracked the judge down at a motel near Chama later that afternoon and interviewed him there.

The news duo got some of the only photos of the incident including a group of people rounded up by the National Guard in the foothills near Canjilon.

Chimayó massacre

Among other big stories that have taken place in the Sun's readership area was the Chimayó massacre, the biggest killing spree in the county's history.

News editor Mike Kaemper was in his parents' home on a Sunday night, July 27, 1991, in Albuquerque watching television when a report broke in that someone had been shot in Chimayó. Kaemper jumped into his car and raced back to Española.

When it was all over Ricky Abeyta had shot and killed seven people including a state police officer, a Rio Arriba County deputy and an 18-month-old baby. A manhunt ensued. Kaemper camped out, then came to the office, organized his news team and wrote nonstop on Tuesday late into the night.

The front page was all pictures of the victims and three pages of stories relating the chain of events, the hunt, capture and arraignment of Abeyta. Abeyta was tried and convicted, then sent to prison where he died a short time later.

The Sun sold 14,000 copies that week, an all-time record.

New Mexico Press Association

When Trapp came to New Mexico he became active in the New Mexico Press Association.

Trapp appreciated the value in the association and the need to stick together and grow together. He served several terms on the board, culminating in his presidency in 1979, and he served another three-year term in the early 1990s. The board meets quarterly and discusses the association's financial status, its projects, educational ventures, awards and the annual fall convention.

"We had a separate convention in the spring meeting for the weeklies because we had different problems from the bigger papers," Trapp said.

The weekly newspapers didn't buy newsprint by the truck or train carload. They were buying pickup loads once a month. Ink didn't come in barrels, it came in five-gallon cans. Most national advertising got sucked up by the bigger dailies.

Commiseration among smaller papers usually took place each April and was sponsored by a member paper in its hometown. This took families to all four corners of the state.

"Today chain ownership has pretty much eliminated that," Trapp said, and in 2000 the spring meeting was eliminated for lack of participation.

The Sun has won numerous press association awards over the years, many for newswriting, photography, columns and editorial writing. The first time it entered in 1957 it won second in community service, competing among dailies and weeklies. The New Mexican won third.

Trapp was on the board when it started a clipping bureau, which is alive today in the form of eClipping. Trapp said publishers Ned Cantwell and Ken Green were the major push behind the idea.

Cervi Award

Dick McCord started The Santa Fe Reporter in 1972. A hardnosed newspaperman, McCord meant to bring an independent voice to the capitol city and cover local news. He was dissatisfied with the Santa Fe New Mexican's news coverage and the capitol city's lack of a second voice.

McCord found friends in the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors. As a member of the Society, McCord nominated Trapp for the Eugene Cervi Award. Cervi was an old-school journalist who published the Rocky Mountain Journal in Denver. Cervi lived by the credo "good journalism begets good government.”

The award recognizes a lifetime achievement in the field of community journalism. In his nomination of Trapp, McCord cited many of Trapp's journalistic achievements over the years and in 1992 Trapp was honored in Colorado Springs at the annual conference. In his acceptance speech he spoke of some of his accomplishments and his passion for the craft of writing and the accurate reporting of legitimate news.

He also told how when he was waiting to start college he had landed a job candling eggs with Safeway Stores in Monte Vista, Colo. When Trapp told his father he planned to enter the newspaper field his father tried to guide him toward the grocery store, soon to be a corporate giant. It was a union gig, sure to pay good wages, solid benefits and carry some job security. What more could you want?

Despite living in New Mexico for almost 40 years, at the time, Trapp's Spanish was minimal, at best. His accent was nonexistent. He ended his Cervi acceptance speech by admitting there may be easier ways of making a living than newspapering, but "Es mas superior para escribir de ponle la luz a los juevos." It's a very rough translation of, "It's better to write than candle eggs," but he got his meaning across expertly and with patent Trapp humor.

He went on to serve on the ISWNE board and served as president in 1995.

Court suits

Aside from large stories covered well, the Sun joined in a lawsuit against the Los Alamos National Laboratory seeking the release of a report regarding pay inequities at the lab. Trapp had gotten a copy of a 168-page report prepared for the lab in 1980 by San Francisco law firm Morrison and Foerster and the lab was trying to prevent its publication.

The Sun obtained and published portions of the report which had been part of a grand jury investigation into women and minorities being paid less than their white male counterparts. The Sun was immediately hit with a gag order requested by the lab and issued by U.S. District Judge Santiago Campos. Trapp and nine other people were barred from making public the information for about four months.

Campos lifted the gag order Aug. 15, 1985, and the Sun then went after the salaries, which the lab refused to release.

The request prompted a major controversy. Letters to the editor releasing the salaries would allow criminals to know which houses to target in Los Alamos when planning break-in sprees.

The lab, with pressure from its operator, the University of California regents, finally gave in and provided print-outs of the salaries of more than 7,000 employees. The salaries reportedly are now available at the public library in Los Alamos.

Libel anyone?

The Sun was sued several times for libel, with only one case ever going to trial. Most were frivolous in nature. The first was in 1964, when a construction firm in Albuquerque sued over a bankruptcy listing in the Sun. There was no inaccurate information, defamation or malice in the publication. It was among other bankruptcy listings. The suit was dismissed at summary judgment.

Another was filed by a defunct Los Alamos construction company accused by a Los Alamos resident of shoddy work. Again, it was dismissed at summary judgment.

The case that went to trial involved a local politician who claimed he was libeled when he was mistakenly identified as a man charged with beating his wife. Reporter Susan Scott-Mayer had obtained the information from a city policeman, but there was some confusion over which Arsenio Martinez (the politician named) actually was arrested. Lacking malice and having a tough time with the defamation part of the charges, a jury found in favor of the Sun.

The most important libel case involved the chief of the New Mexico State Police who sued for $160 million after the Sun published a series of stories involving drug dealing in the Valley, unsolved murders connected to the drug trafficking and alleged state police cover ups. The chief finally dropped his suit and retired.

At least three other libel suits against the Sun came to naught.

McKinney tries again

Printing all the news, regardless of politicians' likes and dislikes, usually has dire consequences for small-town newspapers. The ongoing subtle battle between Trapp and Robert McKinney surfaced again in the 1970s when Rio Arriba County became irritated enough with the Sun that county officials decided to publish Rio Arriba legal notices in the Santa Fe newspaper. The New Mexican was glad to have the revenue and understandably wasn’t eager to explain to county officials it didn't really meet the legal requirements.

Trapp took the county to court to force it to run legals in the Rio Grande Sun, arguing that the New Mexican lacked general circulation in Rio Arriba County as required by law. It was the New Mexican’s circulation manager who locked it up for the Sun.

"Robert Rothstein, (the Sun’s attorney) got him on the stand and asked him how many papers the New Mexican sold in Abiquiú,” Trapp said. “The guy said something like four and that was about it.”

The judge granted a writ of mandamus stating the Sun was a paper of general circulation in Rio Arriba and the New Mexican was not.

More fighting than writing

Most people think a reporter’s life is going to crime scenes or meetings, then regurgitating the facts into a typewriter or computer. In small towns all over America, reporters who are doing the job right spend a lot of their time fighting for access. They have to work at getting to speak to the right person, fight to inspect a public document or argue their way into a meeting.

Sun reporters spend much of their time doing that. That’s because the newsroom has taken on Trapp’s philosophy of news reporting and writing. That philosophy includes getting access to all government activities and telling readers exactly what is going on in their community. Not enough newspapers do this today.

Fighting for public records is one thing. Fighting for access to records held by an electric cooperative is another. It’s a special kind of entity. It’s owned by the members so it’s public in that sense, but it’s not taxpayer money so in that regard it’s not subject to the Inspection of Public Records Act.

Trapp successfully sued the Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative in October 1987, forcing the Co-op to disclose to Co-op members all accounting aspects. That included salaries, vouchers and contracts. The Cooperative had enjoyed several decades of operating in the dark staying under everyone’s radar.

When the victory was entered into the First Judicial District court records, it ensured Jemez Co-op members could ask about the fiscal well-being of their co-op.

Ten years later the Sun fought the same fight with Northern Rio Arriba Electric Cooperative. Then Chama reporter Maureen Schein sued the co-op asking for similar information. Schein and the Sun lost in district court.

The Sun appealed to the state supreme court and won there, meaning that the stockholders in any corporation or co-op in New Mexico could examine the records to make sure the corporation is being properly operated. Sun lawyer Bill Dixon described it as a "landmark" victory.

After 50 years of fighting government at all levels, printing information that most newspapers wouldn’t touch, never backing down to advertisers and leading the state press association and other journalism organizations, Trapp and the Rio Grande Sun are respected nationally.

Trapp and the Sun have been written about in many trade publications, daily newspapers and Smithsonian magazine. When Sun reporter Glenn May was threatened with jail for refusing to disclose a news source, the Sun received offers of help and support from news organizations throughout the country.

Trapp doesn’t care about the recognition, accolades or lauding by trade publications. His entire being is driven by better writing and reporting; in general, better newspapering. That’s what he and Ruth set out to do and that’s what they desire most in life 50 years later.

Facing the continual corruption, poor state of the schools and broken governments at all levels, after a few months new reporters often wonder aloud if the Sun really makes a difference. Ruth Trapp always has the answer at the ready.

“Think of what the Valley would be like if the Sun weren’t here,” she says.