About

The Crosby-Ironton Courier has a strong presence on the Cuyuna Range. 

The timeline of the newspaper began in 1911 (then publishing as The Crosby Courier) continuing the Crosby Crucible Weekly Newspaper.

In 1951 (approximately) the Crosby Courier became The Crosby-Ironton Courier after purchasing the Deerwood Enterprise and the Ironton Ranger giving the tag line "Since 1911...Continuing the Crosby Courier, Crosby Crucible, Ironton Ranger, and Deerwood Enterprise” under the logo of the paper on its front page every week.  Elmer L. Anderson of Crosby was the the owner/publisher at that time. Elmer L. Anderson sold to Paul L. Sheets and his wife Evelyn.

Effective May 1, 1959 Earl J. Hunter became co-publisher of the Crosby-Ironton Courier alongside Mr. Sheets.

In 1965 The Crosby-Ironton Courier suffered a fire at approximately 9:20 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 14 at its First Avenue NW Crosby location. The fire destroyed the Courier plant with the cost expecting to exceed $30,000 in damage. Completely lost in the blaze was the entire stock of newsprint, large amounts of paper used in commercial printing and several hundred of dollars in completed printing orders ready for delivery. 

In 1974 Sheets and Hunter purchased the property and built a one story building to house the needs of the newspaper at 12 East Main and built the building where the C-I Courier still operates. Also in 1974, effective Aug. 1, Sheets sold his half of the business to employee, Thomas M. Swensen of Ironton.  Sheets has been associated with the Crosby-Ironton Courier for over 44 years. A new partnership between Hunter and Swensen was formed. Also, the first full color photo of the new Courier building marks another milestone in the Courier publishing history. It is the first full color picture to ever appear on Courier pages. The new building is the first business building ever owned by Courier management.

In 1979 Hunter sold his half of the newspaper to Swensen making Swensen the sole proprietor. He continued to run the newspaper and the printing of posters, tickets, letterheads, envelopes, etc. with the aid of his children.

Mr. Swensen was featured in the Minneapolis Sunday tribune in the "Picture Magazine" dated Oct. 11, 1959. It reads: "At the age of 18 he took over operation of the Swanville News (circulation of about 600) and became the youngest editor of a weekly newspaper in Minnesota, maybe the nation. He graduated from Swanville High School last spring and is purchasing the weekly from R. A. McRae on a year’s trial basis (actually he’s leasing the paper and rental will apply on the purchase price if Swensen decides to stay in business). “

Swensen moved to the Crosby in the fall of 1960 and was hired as a linotype operator for the Crosby-Ironton Courier. He has grown and adapted to the changes in the industry such as off-set printing to  pagination. He was the sports writer for a number of years and wrote “The Scoop on sports" column weekly.  Wonder where the nickname “Scoop” originated? Some blame belongs to Harker, but it was ex-basketball coach Clayton Kermeen who exploded with, “Well, finally, here comes old ‘Scoop’!” as Swensen was a trifle late to accept a ride to a game. Needless to say, the players who heard it took it from there. It’s a combination of Bill Selisker (Kermeen’s successor) and football coach John Davies who keep the "fires" going. He was inducted in the Crosby-Ironton Athletic Hall of Fame: Tom “Scoop” Swensen Class of 2017. His health began to become a factor and he semi-retired in 2018.

Swensen's daughter, Lori LaBorde, started working for the C-I Courier during the spring of her senior year (1983) helping to sell advertising, run ad proofs to area businesses, as well as run miscellaneous printing jobs (letterheads, envelopes, raffle tickets, auction bills, etc.). Her duties over the years have pretty much covered every position in the industry. She currently works with ad sales, bookkeeping, page layout, light writing and whatever needs to be done. In September of 2005, Swensen sold a portion of the business to his daughter.