Long before websites, social media and smartphones delivered news within seconds, residents of ExcelsiorSprings turned to the local newspaper to learn what was happening in their community.

For more than a century, the name, frequency and format of that newspaper have changed, just asExcelsior Springs itself has changed. Through wars, economic downturns, the rise and decline of the city’smineral water industry and dramatic changes in the way people receive their news, the Excelsior SpringsStandard has remained part of the community it serves.

The newspaper’s history can be traced to at least 1889.

The Excelsior Springs Museum & Archives has an issue of the Excelsior Standard dated Sept. 21, 1889.Published on Saturdays, the newspaper documented a community that was still relatively young andgrowing rapidly around the mineral waters that had brought national attention to Excelsior Springs.

By 1900, the newspaper was known as the Excelsior Springs Standard and was being published on Frida…