The newspaper was first published on March 14, 1881, by American humorist
Edgar Wilson ("Bill") Nye, who named the paper after his
mule, "Boomerang", named so, Nye had said, because he could trust the mule to return him home no matter how inebriated and disoriented Nye might've become. The
Boomerang was founded while Nye was the
postmaster of the city, then in the
Wyoming Territory. It launched him to national fame, gaining the newspaper subscribers in every state and many foreign countries. Nye contributed several humorous articles to the
Boomerang, and served as the paper's editor until 1883. He was succeeded by M.C. Barrow. In 1888, Mr. McKee and William E. Chaplin acquired the paper, and in May 1890 sold it to Charles L. Rauner. Ivy Buck was another minority owner and with Rauner converted the paper from a Republican to a Democratic publication. That August, the firm McKee & Chaplin launched the
Laramie Republican. W.H. Kent was editor. In 1920, Frank Sumner Burrage acquired the
Republican from the company. In 1923, Burrage purchased the
Boomerang and merged the two together to form the
Laramie Republican-Boomerang. Tracy S. McCraken acquired the
Laramie Daily Bulletin in 1936, and the
Republican-Boomerang in 1938
.'''''' McCraken previously served as secretary, in 1923, to Wyoming's Democratic Governor
William Bradford Ross, and, in 1924, to U.S. Senator
John B. Kendrick. Eventually, McCraken established a "close friendship" with Wyoming's Governor
Leslie Andrew Miller and Senator
Joseph Christopher O'Mahoney, forming an alliance one reporter called a "political steamroller" that was nicknamed the "M-O-M." In 1957, the
Republican-Boomerang and
Daily Bulletin were merged to form the
Daily Boomerang. In October 2015, McCraken Newspaper Group was acquired by
Adams Publishing Group. The sale included the
Boomerang,
Wyoming Tribune Eagle, Rawlins Daily Times and
Rock Springs Daily Rocket-Miner. In 2020, the
Boomerang discontinued it's Tuesday edition. ==References==