At the town's peak in the 1880's, it was served by the Socorro Daily Chieftain; the proprietor, Dr. William Tell De Baun, also was the town's mayor. But when the nation went off the gold standard, Socorro's milling collapsed, people moved out, and despite railroad service and a new college founded in 1889 (New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology) the community struggled.

During many decades of the 20th Century, the Spanish-language El Defensor del Pueblo and English Socorro Chieftain co-existed under various owners. They had merged, however, by the early 1950's.