of small trucks and automobiles, all of which continued to bear the name Newsboy. After the Republican River flood of 1935, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted a study of the river's watershed. Released in 1940, it concluded that there were no good dam sites upstream from Republican City, Nebraska, where the Harlan County Dam is now located. Since 112 deaths and the bulk of the property damage caused by the flood had occurred in the upper Republican valley, which includes McCook, the report led to dissatisfaction among residents of the area. Strunk and three others formed the Republican Valley Conservation Association, which lobbied aggressively for the development of a flood-control program for the entire basin; the Gazette provided office space to the organization. The RVCA's efforts led to the construction of a number of dams in the area: one on the Republican at Trenton, Nebraska, and several on tributaries of the river in Nebraska and Kansas. One of the latter was built on Medicine Creek in Frontier County, Nebraska; the reservoir behind it has been named Harry Strunk Lake. After 1960 Harry Strunk published the Gazette until his death in 1960, after which his son Allen Strunk succeeded him. Under Allen Strunk, the newspaper made the conversion from letterpress to offset printing. At the end of 1986, the Strunk family sold the newspaper to Gozia-Driver Media, which was later re-incorporated as US Media Group. Allen Strunk was succeeded as publisher by Dick Gozia and John Burgess, who occupied the position from 1987 to 1990, followed by Gene Morris, who became publisher in 1990. In 1997, the Gazette was acquired by Rust Communications. In 2002, it launched a weekly shopper, the "Big Nickel", inserted in the Friday newspaper and distributed free from racks throughout the newspaper's circulation area. Upon Gene Morris's retirement in 2007, general manager Shary Skiles was named publisher. In 2009, the newspaper ended Saturday publication, moving to a schedule of five issues a week, released on Monday through Friday afternoons. The circulation of the Gazette has declined in the 21st century. In 2001, the Nebraska Press Association listed it as 6,709. In 2005, a report by the Knight Foundation gave it as "approximately 5,903". In 2011, the Nebraska Press Association's website listed the number as 4,564. Notes References Newspapers published in Nebraska Newspapers established in 1911 Rust Communications publications Red Willow County, Nebraska