Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
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John Hollenhorst ReportingIn the news business we sometimes go to strange places to find a story. But long ago, there was a news organization that used a weird place as it's starting point, and took it from there.
The quirky results are still remembered before its 36th anniversary.
If Richard Goldberger had found this strange scene 36 years ago, he would have put it in the paper.
Richard Goldberger: "Look at that! And you fram it, go down there and frame it."
A metal cross. With just the right amount of mystery. And weirdness.
Richard Goldberger: "A terrible thing happened. A great sadness happened on this point in the desert."
A feel for the desert. Its strange sights. Its stark beauty. Its unique characters. They define a paper called the Salt Flat News. All about a place, and what surrounds it.
Richard Goldberger: "Ground zero of the big nothing. This is the big nothing, folks!"
The paper lasted just long enough to make an impact and to be remembered.
Ken Sanders/ Ken Sanders Rare Books: "I think I've grown to love the Salt Flat News."
Ken Sanders sells old copies, up to 100 bucks apiece. He says the brilliant photography of Richard Menzies was the heart and soul. What filled the pages was an appreciation for beauty, of the desert and its people.
Ken Sanders: "Everything from astronauts to old hermits in the desert to certified lunatics to cheerleaders to you-name-it. Out on the Salt Flats. It's so quirky and appealing."
Many sights today would inspire Goldberger as editor. Where else would you find a salt-encrusted Heineken bottle?
Richard Goldberger: "Just some trash. But out here it becomes a treasure. Because of the space. It's framed by space."
We think we know what Goldberger means....
Richard Goldberger: "This is the mother of all space. I mean, this is fantastic."
... when he calls the paper an experiment in existential journalism.
Richard Goldberger: "Life is very complicated. And here in space there's no complications. There's nothing."
He suggested a table for our interview. We added a few props to recapture the paper's whimsical weirdness.
Richard Goldberger: "This is a good dialogue setting. I'm not so sure about the lamp and the flamingoes. It looks like something out of a Fellini movie. A bad Fellini movie."
The Flats seem to run deep in Goldberger's thoughts.
Richard Goldberger: "It's Freudian to do psychoanalysis. Freud would have an orgasm out here. I mean because space is that great allowance to get the truth out."
A lot of people remember the paper for its visual inventiveness. But it didn't exactly score a hole-in-one on the business side. It only lasted 21 issues.
Richard Goldberger: "It was an incredible success. But it didn't go to the bank, folks."
Not making money probably comes with the territory, and its unique essence.
Richard Goldberger: "The essence of nothing, basically, because in that essence you have something incredible."
The paper lasted from 1970 to 1975. For a time it was distributed in some other newspapers as an insert and given out free by Hughes West Airlines.
