The Moapa Valley Progress changed its quarters last week. After being located in downtown Overton for the past seven years, the local newspaper has now moved to a new office at 2885 N. Moapa Valley Blvd. in the same building with the Foremost Realty offices. The Progress office is located on the southwest corner of that office building, through the door facing the parking lot.

Though this is a new location for the Progress, in many ways, the local newspaper is just returning back to its deepest roots. Those who have been living in the Moapa Valley community for three decades or more may remember the Lake Mead Monitor newspaper. For several years, the Monitor was published in the same Logandale building as the Progress was pleased, last week to make its new home. And in many ways, the Lake Mead Monitor was a predecessor and father publication to the Progress which came along later.

The Lake Mead Monitor published its first edition on October 4, 1979 from the building that was then the office of Robison Real Estate.

Robison Realty owner, Bryant Robison who funded the start-up, recalls making a significant investment in the fledgling enterprise. He remembered putting up several thousand dollars for a new linotype machine which was used in those days for setting type. He also paid for the construction and equipment of a new darkroom facility that was built in one of the small rooms at the office building.

“It was funny: all this was just at the very beginning of the time that computers were coming out,” Robison said. “This was expensive equipment and it was what newspaper outfits were using at the time. But it was not really a computer. Well, it wasn’t six months later that Apple came out with a new computer that would do everything that those machines would do.”

The Monitor was operated by a newly formed company called Monitor Media owned by Bryant and his brother Ace Robison who was listed as its publisher.

An early edition stated that the new publication had “come into being to respond to the need for editorial comment, consistent weekly advertising for local merchants and news reporting.”

The monitor; which began as a tabloid newspaper, similar in format to the Progress; was mailed to every postal customer in the Moapa and Virgin Valleys.

The Monitor started out in a competitive market. At that time, there was another newspaper already being published in the community. The Moapa Valley Herald, which was published by Overton businessman, Lee Bishop, had been in print since December of 1975. Up until then, the Herald had been a bi-monthly publication. But in 1979, it began to publish a weekly edition, just like the Monitor.

For the first several months, the Monitor went through a series of editors; beginning with a string of high school students who wrote much of the content, helped with the layout and design, and even sold advertising. The Monitor also employed Nancy Cooper as a typesetter and layout designer.

In August of 1980, Logandale resident Rex Jensen was named as the newspaper’s editor. At the time, Jensen was also teaching part time at the Moapa Valley High School.

For some time before that, Jensen had been contributing a popular op-ed column to the Monitor called “The Thread”. He continued writing this conservative political commentary throughout the time the Monitor was published.

At the same time, it was also announced that the Monitor would add a new advertising manager to the staff. John Robison was Bryant’s younger brother. John had owned and operated a Sears catalog store in downtown Overton which he had recently sold. He was now joining the team at the Monitor.

It was John who would later establish the Moapa Valley Progress, and who is today still listed as its publisher.

The two newspapers continued weekly publication for a couple of years. But business conditions were tough for competing newspapers in such a small community. So in June of 1981 Lee Bishop and Bryant Robison announced that the two papers would merge into the “Valley Herald and Lake Mead Monitor”.

While Bishop and Bryant Robison announced that they would both still be involved in the operation of the paper, they named one Lee Pollard as its Publisher. Pollard was from Colorado and had owned and operated a newspaper in the Bay Area of California for eleven years before coming to Moapa Valley.

The office of the newspaper was established at what was then 257 S. Main in downtown Overton, which today is in the same building as “Flowers On The Blvd”.

All of Bryant’s expensive linotype equipment was moved to the new location for use there. But only a couple of months later, all of those machines and equipment were destroyed by the big Muddy River flood of 1981, Bryant recalled.

Despite that, the new publication continued to be distributed for a couple of years after that, Bryant said. But eventually it stopped publication and the community was without a newspaper for a time. This left a void that needed to be filled.

“The community needed a local source of news and the local business owners really needed an outlet for advertising,” Bryant said.

At Bryant’s urging, John Robison began thinking about starting another news publication in the community. John had become familiar with the process of publishing a newspaper in his time with the Monitor and he based much of his business planning on that prior experience.

In August of 1987, John published the first edition of the Moapa Valley Progress. For nearly 18 years, the Progress was operated out of a small office at John’s home on Navajo Ave. in Logandale.

Then in November 2004, John entered a partnership with current General Managing Editor, Vernon Robison and a new publishing company, JZR Communications, was formed. The Progress then moved its office to downtown Overton at 145 S. Moapa Valley Blvd.

So last week, in its relocation, the Progress came full circle and returned to its ancestral home, now the Foremost Realty office in Logandale.

The Progress is now in its 25th year of continuous weekly publication. But the Progress’ ancestry as the community’s news voice actually goes back nearly a decade before that, to those humble beginnings of the Lake Mead Monitor, published from the old Robison Real Estate office, in October of 1979.

Today, the Progress proudly claims its place as, not only the longest running newspaper, but also the only remaining independently-operated news voice in northeastern Clark County.

Like the Monitor, three decades ago, we still distribute the newspaper weekly; free by mail to every postal customer in our primary service territory. And we are still determined to satisfy the community’s need for strong and open editorial comment, consistent and high quality weekly advertising for local businesses, and fair and reliable news reporting.

After more than three cumulative decades in the local news business, we are still proud to say that no one covers the Moapa Valley like we do!