In August of 2025, a group of local volunteers launched The Chronicle Chronicle, the only news source covering northern Denver and the southeastern corner of Catawba County.
The paper’s goal was to foster a sense of local community, preserve the forgotten history of our long-established area, and let residents of Chronicle know what’s happening in their neighborhoods.
When the first edition was printed, volunteers distributed over a thousand copies of the Chronicle to local homes and businesses. The process was conducted by hand and took several days. Two newspaper boxes were placed at Killian Crossroads, and more were acquired for future expansion. Numerous individuals signed up for the Chronicle’s free home delivery.
The response was immediate and, for the most part, positive. Many citizens reached out to express their support for the newspaper and relationships were quickly forged with some local businesses and non-profits.
Some were suspicious of the paper, believing it to be a vehicle for a political agenda or for the incorporation of the Chronicle/Denver area. Others expressed dismay at some of the stories.
Residents of Shannon Woods, a recently constructed residential community located near the intersection of NC-16 and NC-150, were initially displeased with the Chronicle. The article on the front page of the first edition of the Chronicle expressed the concerns of some residents regarding the quality of the housing. Some Shannon Woods residents feared that the article could decrease their property values.
The Chronicle has received some recognition from other local news outlets. Articles written by the Chronicle were cited in the Lake Norman Citizen, and the Chronicle achieved some notoriety this year in April when Editor James Kmosko was invited as a guest to Chuck Boozer’s radio program on WHKY, a talk radio station based in Hickory.
The Chronicle has covered dozens of stories, from breaking news, to opinion pieces, to business showcases, to historical research pieces.
The Chronicle published the first and most detailed reports when organizer Linda Brooks was accused and eventually convicted of embezzling thousands of dollars from the Vocals for Veterans Music Festival, an event held at the now-defunct bar The Turn Sports Bar in Chronicle.
The proceeds, which were meant to benefit Chronicle-based veterans’ charity L.O.V. Thrift Store, were instead used to purchase a new vehicle and pay for restaurant dinners, according to several individuals involved. Reporters from the Chronicle were in contact with all relevant parties during the entire several-month ordeal.
The paper also covered news stories such as the erosion at Molly’s Backbone, allegedly caused by the nearby Laurelbrook development, the Catawba County school merger, and numerous stories on local building and development.
To date, the Chronicle has distributed thousands of print papers and has acquired tens of thousands of views on the publication’s website.
The Chronicle also hosted the Chrony awards, which each year will give an award to one business and one non-profit based in Chronicle. Winners are decided by popular vote.
The publication was modeled after existing hyper-local papers across the United States and the local papers that, a century ago, covered small towns in Lincoln and Catawba Counties.
One such inspiration was the Carolina Eagle, a weekly paper founded in 1871 in the small town of Hickory Tavern, which was organized the year before. Hickory Tavern’s population at the time was roughly one thousand.
Early editions of the Carolina Eagle were printed on irregular paper, close in size to modern day letter paper, on which the Chronicle is printed. The town of Hickory Tavern removed the word “Tavern” from its name in 1873 and has since been known simply as “Hickory.”
The Eagle allows us to look into a unique time period in Hickory’s history, after its organization but before the change in its name. The everyday happenings in Hickory Tavern, which would otherwise be lost to history, are recorded in detail. Today, over 150 years later, we are able to study and understand what Hickory was and how it became what it is today.
Another inspiration was David Calvin King Wilkinson, a well-respected resident of Chronicle who, around the turn of the twentieth century, wrote dozens of articles over the course of a decade in the Lincoln Times News and the Observer in Newton. He headed each of the articles with “Chronicle,” and signed them as “Alpha” or “Omega,” or on rare occasions with his real name.
Wilkinson was so prolific in his writing that his articles provide a comprehensive tapestry of life in Chronicle at the time, much like the Carolina Eagle did for Hickory Tavern.
Most of the historical articles written for this publication will cite Wilkinson’s work as a reliable primary source.
Today, other than articles from this publication and some work by the Lake Norman Citizen, there is very little lasting documentation of the Chronicle and Denver areas.
A century from now, journalists, historians, and curious citizens may look to this newspaper as the only source to provide them with a small glimpse into the world of Chronicle in the 2020s.
Chronicle has never been the largest or most populated town in Catawba and Lincoln counties, but the people who lived in this area historically published papers anyway.
Chroniclites of the past did not see the small size of a town as a reason to cast aside its history and community, and this publication does not either.
To all of the individuals who have donated time or resources to the Chronicle, anyone who has sent us an idea for an article, anyone who has agreed to sit for an interview, the businesses and non-profits that have shown us so much support, to all of our many readers, and everyone else who has helped make this endeavor possible, we at the Chronicle send our truest thanks.
With the support of readers like you, the Chronicle will keep our unbiased agenda-free journalism in print for years to come.
If you want to learn more about how to support the Chronicle, have an idea for an article, or want to send in an article to be published (under your name or an alias), email editor@chroniclechronicle.com or contact the Chronicle on Facebook or Instagram.