The first newspaper in the Antelope Valley was most probably the Lancaster News, which was launched sometime between 1885 and 1886. Leo Issacs would publish the next paper, the Lancaster Gazette, with the first issues printed in Los Angeles and transported to Lancaster.
The Lancaster Gazette was sold to S.A. Drummond in 1888, who established a partnership with E.Y. Cammer. After an argument between the two, Drummond left the Lancaster Gazette, later becoming the Antelope Valley Ledger Gazette, to found the competing Antelope Valley Times.
A massive fire in 1912, on the west side of Antelope Avenue between 10th and 11th street, ultimately destroyed the headquarters of the Antelope Valley Gazette. Most of the contents were lost along with the building, erasing a majority of the records documenting early Lancaster and Antelope Valley history. Despite this devastation, the Antelope Valley Ledger Gazette would reopen and continue business for several decades to come.
Though all of the documents present during the 1912 fire sustained damage to some extent, the surviving documents were preserved over the years and are now housed within the Lancaster Museum of Art and History (MOAH) Archives Vault.
