By 
Tom Cypher of Hazel started a joke, which started the whole town reading.
Cypher is the man behind the area’s newest newspaper, Hazel’s Happenings. It started in February as a lark, but the community’s reception has been so positive he’s kept pumping out editions each month since.
“People always said to me, ‘Tom, you should start a newspaper about Hazel. You know everything that’s going on.’ I said, ‘Yea, right.’”
But he did it anyway.
He doesn’t own a printing press, and his typing abilities have never been great, so he printed the entire paper by hand. The first edition consisted of four 8½-by-11 pages filled with local tidbits.
Four editions of Hazel’s Happenings have been printed with more coming. Photo by Roger Whittle, Watertown Current.
There’s a story about two new workers being hired by the Hazel Elevator, a report on the local ice fishermen catching walleye and perch at Wolf’s Slough, an update on a new county commissioner, a story about a local man being honored by the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association, and more. He also included the birthdays of Hazel residents and a section on the town’s history.
On the back page of the paper, he added an editor’s note that read: “Several people told me that I should write a newspaper for Hazel, so here it is. I pretty much did it for a joke and proved it can be done!”
As it turned out, the joke was on him. Since the first edition was enjoyed by so many in Hazel, he decided to keep going. The next two monthly editions were six pages each, and the May paper was back to four pages.
“I didn’t think it would go this good,” he said. “It just got out of hand. I had a 140 printed for May, and I have less than 40 left.”
Hazel has about 105 residents.
Each month, Cypher has had to get extra copies printed after his initial press run was entirely snapped up. Each press run involves a trip to Jurgens Printing in Watertown.
“I print a few more copies every week, I told Kristi (Jurgens) that I would get a free ad for her,” he said.
Cypher is constantly scribbling down ideas for stories. Then, when he’s ready to put out the next edition, he sits down with paper and pencil at his kitchen table and starts printing the good copy.
“That’s where I like to work,” he said. “Some people say I should type it, but others say it’s more personal this way. It’s like a letter. You’re actually writing it.”
He took a typing class in high school, but he prefers the handwritten look. Besides, he said, he has pretty good penmanship, “for a lefthander.”
Even though he was born in Clark, Cypher has lived in Hazel for most of his 71 years. He missed being part of the last graduating class of Hazel High School in 1972 by one year. He graduated from Hamlin High School in 1973.
He has had five books published, mainly on the history of the area.
“I’ve been a history buff all my life,” he said. “I’ve saved a lot of clippings, and people bring me scrapbooks.”
He will lean more on those clippings in future editions of Hazel’s Happenings. The response from readers is what keeps him going. The newspaper has become popular in the area and beyond, he said.
“It’s going all over. People are putting it on their Facebook page and texting it to people out of state. I didn’t know it was going to get that bad.”
Hazel’s newest media mogul has a good start on the June edition and has some preliminary ideas for July
“I tell people it’s going to be more history from now on – news clippings and things like that. I tell people I’m cleaning out my vault.”
One thing he doesn’t plan on doing is putting advertisements in his paper.
“I don’t want to get into selling ads,” he said. “People say I should, but I just don’t want to.”
He works at the Farmers Union Co-op in Hazel, running the gas and retail side. He does some of his newspaper work on the job, which manager Terrance Allard said is fine. Most folks pick up their Hazel’s Happenings from the foil-covered box on a shelf, but he also convinced a local youth to deliver papers around town.
