Newspaper Roams the Back Roads of the West

From Boring, Ore., to Nothing, Ariz., by way of Puckerbrush, Nev., Chuck Woodbury has hit the high spots of the Old West.

In five years of publishing an offbeat travel newspaper that deliberately avoids major tourist attractions, Woodbury, 45, has logged nearly 120,000 miles on the back roads of 11 western states.

Woodbury is editor, publisher, chief photographer, circulation manager, ad salesman and mobile home driver for Out West, the Newspaper That Roams.

The slogan in his quarterly tabloid’s masthead is meant literally. Out West’s newsroom is a recreational vehicle equipped with a battery-operated laptop computer, a Macintosh Plus desktop publishing system that plugs into the cigarette lighter, and his cameras.

His business office in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, where he keeps circulation and advertising records, isn’t much bigger than the RV office. The quarterly tabloid is printed by a local daily newspaper.

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Woodbury abandoned conventional journalism in 1986, when he sold his suburban monthly newspaper. He made enough from the sale to equip the mobile newsroom and support himself until he sold enough subscriptions to make his new paper self-supporting.

The first edition of Out West appeared early in 1988, selling about 400 copies at $1.50 each for 28 pages of stories about out-of-the-way western communities.

Twenty issues later, Woodbury is selling 8,500 copies of a 48-page paper at $2.50 a copy. He has also published one hardcover book and produced two videos based on his travels.

He also met and married his wife, Rodica, a fellow writer and editor, during his wanderings; they now travel with an 18-month-old daughter.

“We have a really good life. We do what we want to do. We make a modest living, about the same as a reporter or editor on a medium-sized newspaper,” Woodbury said.

“The routine is simple. We just pick a direction and get up and go. It truly is half vacation and half work. The difference is you get to share the stories of your vacation with a whole lot of people, not just postcards to a few friends.”

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Although Woodbury does all of his traveling in a recreational vehicle, he emphasizes: “We’re not an RV magazine. It’s just the way we get around. We don’t dwell on it. Only about 20% of our readers are RV owners.”

Woodbury said he has also discovered, somewhat to his surprise, that most Out West’s subscribers live in the urban areas he avoids in his newspaper.

“The paper is an escape for readers. They fantasize about doing the same thing we’re doing, escaping to the country and the back roads,” he said. “They live in urban areas and they want out.”

His niche among travel publications is going to the places nobody else goes and writing about the people nobody else writes about.

His restaurant reviews rate the amount of grease in the hamburgers. His travel journals talk about interesting road signs, advertisements and business names, such as the Pat Yer Beli Deli or the sanitation company that advertises “We’re No. 1 in the No. 2 Business.”

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He’s written about the controversy among residents of Earth, Tex., over whether to call themselves “Earthlings.” He’s visited Pie Town, N.M., where there’s no place in town to buy a pie, and Nothing, Ariz., “which almost lives up to its name.”

One story was about Buck and Maud, who run a rural radio station from a bedroom of their Arizona home. Another story was about the competition among Idaho towns to host the state Potato Museum, and another was about the Earthquake Pub in Hollister, Calif., which serves Seismic Ale and gives customers a round of free drinks during a quake on the nearby San Andreas Fault.

He avoids big cities and known tourist attractions, focusing instead on two-lane back roads lined with mailboxes and dotted with roadside stands. One of his favorites is old Route 66, which he said is still about 80% intact through the Southwest.

“It still has the Wigwam Motel, where you can still spend a night in a wigwam-shaped room,” he said.

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Although Woodbury writes feature stories about local history, people he meets and places he visits, readers’ letters indicate the newspaper’s most popular feature is his travel journal, a mixture of travel information and personal feelings that reads like a long letter to a friend and fills up to one-fourth of the paper.

He muses about how new shopping malls and big discount stores change, but have not destroyed, the main streets that give character to the rural West.

He is saddened by the franchised sameness of fast-food outlets and hotel and motel chains, but delights at a one-of-a-kind motel or restaurant, especially if it’s been operating for a long time.

“I reflect on what I see. Readers tell me they like that, but I try to keep a focus on giving travel information,” he said.

Woodbury said that exploring the West’s back roads has as much appeal today as when he started Out West five years ago, and he’s not worried about running out of places or people to write about.

“There’s always more to see, and places change. And you haven’t traveled a road until you’ve traveled it both ways, and in all four seasons,” he said.