Chinook was a counterculture underground newspaper published weekly in Denver, Colorado from Aug. 21, 1969 to Jan. 21, 1972. It was a member of the Underground Press Syndicate. A total of 117 issues were printed. In 1972 it merged with Boulder magazine to become The Straight Creek Journal,[1] which considered itself an alternative press rather than an underground press publication, publishing weekly from Feb. 10, 1972 to Aug. 7, 1980.[2] According to Abe Peck in his memoir Uncovering the Sixties, the original underground Chinook started to fall apart after a number of staffers left to become followers of Guru Maharaj Ji, who visited Denver and established a mission there in late 1971.[3]
Chinook Calendar page, April 23, 1970, showing typical events and community interests of an underground paper of this period. (Click to expand)
From Chinook, Vol 3, No 18, Issue 83: Staff: Patick Dolan (editor), Kevin Tannenbaum (managing editor), John Loquidis (music), Milton Tea (music), Cosmic Joe (news, calendar). Steve Levince (City), Mike Wheelock and Lini Lieberman (food), Paul Salazar (astrologer), Swami Sivanand (swami), Dan Yurman (housing) Carl Stone, photography).
Other Contributors to Chinook included Chip Berlet.
The last issue published was on Valentines Day 1972. The folded (half-tabloid) back cover was by artist John Fish. The open tabloid full front page was by artist Layne Catherine Anderson.
The terms underground press or clandestine press refer to periodicals and publications that are produced without official approval, illegally or against the wishes of a dominant group. In specific recent Asian, American and Western European context, the term "underground press" has most frequently been employed to refer to the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in India and Bangladesh in Asia, in the United States and Canada in North America, and the United Kingdom and other western nations. It can also refer to the newspapers produced independently in repressive regimes. In German occupied Europe, for example, a thriving underground press operated, usually in association with the Resistance. Other notable examples include the samizdat and bibuła, which operated in the Soviet Union and Poland respectively, during the Cold War.
The Underground Press Syndicate (UPS), later known as the Alternative Press Syndicate (APS), was a network of countercultural newspapers and magazines formed in mid-1966 by the publishers of five early underground papers: the East Village Other, the Los Angeles Free Press, the Berkeley Barb, The Paper, and Fifth Estate. As it evolved, the Underground Press Syndicate created an Underground Press Service, and later its own magazine. For many years the Underground Press Syndicate was run by Tom Forcade, who later founded High Times magazine.
The Los Angeles Free Press, also called "The Freep", was among the most widely distributed underground newspapers of the 1960s. It is often cited as the first of such newspaper.{} The Free Press was edited and published weekly, for most of its existence, by Art Kunkin.
The Berkeley Barb was a weekly underground newspaper published in Berkeley, California, during the years 1965 to 1980. It was one of the first and most influential of the counterculture newspapers, covering such subjects as the anti-war movement and Civil Rights Movement, as well as the social changes advocated by youth culture.
Seed was an underground newspaper launched by artist Don Lewis and Earl Segal, owner of the Molehole, a local poster shop, and published biweekly in Chicago, Illinois from May 1967 to 1974; there were 121 issues published in all. Disagreements between Lewis and Segal led to its purchase by Harry Dewar, a graphic designer and Colin Pearlson, a photographer, who thought it had commercial potential. Lester Dore took over the art direction when Don Lewis moved to New York to work for Screw magazine. Skeets Millard, a young photographer and community organizer who was publishing the Chicago edition of Kaleidoscope, joined the Seed staff in 1969, at a time when all of the original founders were gone and there was no one working on the paper who had been there more than 12 months; Mike Abrahamson was running the paper in Abe Peck's absence. Jim Roslof, Karl Heinz-Meschbach, Paul Zmiewski, Skip Williamson, Jay Lynch, Peter Solt, and other 60s artists contributed to what was called one of the most beautiful underground press publications of its time.
The Rag was an underground newspaper published in Austin, Texas from 1966–1977. The weekly paper covered political and cultural topics that the conventional press ignored, such as the growing antiwar movement, the sexual revolution, gay liberation, and the drug culture. The Rag encouraged these political constituencies and countercultural communities to coalesce into a significant political force in Austin. As the sixth member of the Underground Press Syndicate and the first underground paper in the South, The Rag helped shape a flourishing national underground press. According to historian and publisher Paul Buhle, The Rag was "one of the first, the most long-lasting and most influential" of the Sixties underground papers. In his 1972 book, The Paper Revolutionaries, Laurence Leamer called The Rag "one of the few legendary undergrounds."
The Paper was a weekly underground newspaper published in East Lansing, Michigan beginning in December 1965. It was one of the five original founding members of the Underground Press Syndicate. Started by Michigan State University student Michael Kindman as a radical, counterculture alternative to the official MSU campus newspaper, it was sympathetic to the politics of SDS. Initially tolerated by the MSU school administration, The Paper briefly received funding from a campus publications board before controversial content caused it to be banned from the MSU campus, but it continued to grow in popularity after the ban.
San Francisco Express Times was a counterculture tabloid underground newspaper edited by Marvin Garson and published weekly in San Francisco, California from January 24, 1968, to March 25, 1969, for a total of 62 issues, covering and promoting radical politics, rock music, arts and progressive culture in the Bay Area. It was a member of the Underground Press Syndicate, and sold for 15 cents.
Quicksilver Times was an antiwar, counterculture underground newspaper published in Washington, DC. Its first issue was dated June 16, 1969, with Terry Becker Jr., a former college newspaper editor and reporter for the Newhouse News Service, the main instigator in the founding group of antiwar activists. It ran for 3 years, with its final issue appearing in Aug. 1972. Publication was irregular and during the latter part of its run it was publishing once every 3 weeks. It was a member of the Liberation News Service and the Underground Press Syndicate. Quicksilver Times was one of several anti-government underground papers of the period now known to have been infiltrated by government informants.
The Distant Drummer was a 1960s counterculture underground newspaper published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from November 1967 to July 1979. It changed titles twice: from October 2, 1970 to August 12, 1971 it was Thursday's Drummer, and subsequently it was known simply as The Drummer until its demise in 1979, after a run of 568 issues. It was a member of the Underground Press Syndicate and also used material from the Liberation News Service.
The Berkeley Tribe was a radical counterculture underground newspaper published in Berkeley, California from 1969 to 1972. It was formed after a bitter staff dispute with publisher Max Scherr and split the nationally known Berkeley Barb into new competing underground weeklies. In July 1969 some 40 editorial and production staff with the Barb went on strike for three weeks, then started publishing the Berkeley Tribe as a rival paper, after first printing an interim issue called Barb on Strike to discuss the strike issues with the readership. They incorporated as Red Mountain Tribe, named after a popular brand of cheap California wine. It became a leading publication of the New Left.
Space City! was an underground newspaper published in Houston, Texas from June 5, 1969 to August 3, 1972. The founders were Students for a Democratic Society veterans and former members of the staff of the Austin, Texas, underground newspaper, The Rag, one of the earliest and most influential of the Sixties underground papers. The original editorial collective was composed of Thorne Dreyer, who had been the founding "funnel" of The Rag in 1966; Victoria Smith, a former reporter for the St. Paul Dispatch; community organizers Cam Duncan and Sue Mithun Duncan; and radical journalists Dennis Fitzgerald and Judy Gitlin Fitzgerald.
Hundred Flowers was an underground newspaper published in Minneapolis, Minnesota from April 17, 1970 to April 4, 1972. It was produced by a communal collective, with the main instigator being antiwar activist and former Smith College drama instructor Ed Felien. The 16-page, two-color tabloid was published weekly and cost 25 cents, circulating about 5000 copies.
Pittsburgh Fair Witness was a radical counterculture underground newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1970 to 1973. The first 9 monthly issues were published starting in February 1970 under the title Grok. Beginning with vol. 1, no. 10 the title was changed to Pittsburgh Fair Witness and the paper shifted to publication once every three weeks; starting with the Dec. 3-17, 1971 issue it published on a biweekly schedule until its demise with vol. 4, no. 6. The PFW was staff-owned and published by a collective that called itself "The Commune." An editorial published in the May 26, 1972 issue under the heading "Our Rap" gives the paper's statement of purpose:
"The Fair Witness is published by a non-profit collective and is dedicated to the worldwide movement of people to control themselves—the movement to break down the authoritarian systems of government that are denying us our basic freedoms, that are responsible for needless genocidal wars, the perpetration of minority discrimination, the pollution of our environment and our bodies, the high concentration of power among the wealthy classes, exploitation of the individual, etc. The paper is dedicated to the struggle of all peoples to gain back the right to their own lives, the struggle to raise the consciousness of the world as a whole, the struggle to become independently productive through a working knowledge of the tools at our disposal. As a local paper our most important function concerns the movement here in western Pennsylvania."
Open City was a weekly underground newspaper published in Los Angeles by avant-garde journalist John Bryan from May 6, 1967 to April 1969. It was noted for its coverage of radical politics, rock music, psychedelic culture and the "Notes of a Dirty Old Man" column by Charles Bukowski.
Rebirth was a short-lived hippie underground newspaper in Phoenix, Arizona, which published nine biweekly and weekly issues between May 20, 1968 and August 1969. Published in tabloid format and featuring psychedelic graphics and underground comix, along with coverage of local and national news from a countercultural perspective, Rebirth was linked to the underground radio culture in Phoenix around radio stations KNIX, KRUX and KCAC, which were at the time offering a free-form FM progressive rock format.
Illustrated Paper was a monthly psychedelic underground newspaper published in Mendocino, California from June 1966 to April 1967. Initially issued under the title The Paper, it became the Illustrated Paper with its third issue. Philip A. Bianchi and Walter D. Wells were the editors. It was one of the earliest members of the Underground Press Syndicate. According to Abe Peck, the editor of the Chicago Seed who met the staff at the 1967 UPS conference in Stinson Beach, California, it was an "Oracle-style" paper and the staff raised animals and grew vegetables on communal land. A total of nine issues were published before it ceased publication in 1967.
Tuesday's Child was a short-lived counterculture underground newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, USA, starting on November 11, 1969. Self-described on its masthead as "An ecumenical, educational newspaper for the Los Angeles occult & underground," it was founded by Los Angeles Free Press reporter Jerry Applebaum and a group of Freep staffers, including Alex Apostolides, who left en masse after disagreements with Art Kunkin to found their own paper. It was edited by Chester Anderson and published weekly from an office in Hollywood in a tabloid format, selling for 25 cents. Never achieving the success or circulation of its crosstown rival, the Free Press, it quickly attained a degree of notoriety in and out of the underground with its coverage of the Charles Manson case. One issue featured an image of a crucified Charles Manson on the cover, and another issue had a photograph of Manson on the cover proclaiming him "Man of the Year."
Thorne Webb Dreyer is an American writer, editor, publisher, and political activist who played a major role in the 1960s-1970s counterculture, New Left, and underground press movements. Dreyer now lives in Austin, Texas, where he edits the progressive internet news magazine, The Rag Blog, hosts Rag Radio on KOOP 91.7-FM, and is a director of the New Journalism Project.
Abe Peck is a magazine consultant, writer, editor and professor, known for having been an editor and writer at the Chicago Seed underground newspaper from 1968-1971.
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