Search The Modesto Bee Archives

Welcome to The Modesto Bee's online archive service.

The Modesto Bee, under various names and ownership, has been published daily since 1884. Locating information from this long history of service to the community can be exciting, but sometimes challenging.

Our online collection contains thousands of articles and photographs from around the community and around the world. Although we add hundreds of information sources every day of the year, the extreme size of the material prevents us from leaving it online indefinitely. If you are not able to find something in our current online collection, we offer two extended search tools to locate the information you are seeking.

Step 1 - Long Term Archives

Archive pricing

Single story: $3.95
Five stories: $17.78
Ten stories: $33.58
Fifty stories: $158.00

With stories dating back to 1989, the long-term archive allows you access to Modesto Bee content from years past. There is a modest convenience charge for the service.

You can sign up for an account using our secure server, or you can sign up after you find the article you want. If you encounter trouble during your transaction, please call 800-896-5587, or send e-mail to modestoarchive@newsbank.com

Please note, our long-term archives do not contain stories created or distributed by wire services such as The Associated Press. The archives contain only articles created by or for The Modesto Bee. This archive contains only text articles - it does not include graphics or photographs.

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Step 2 - The Bee Search Service

If you are looking for a local item that pre-dates 1989, you will need to contact our Bee Search service. The Modesto Bee's internal archives contain every edition and story published by The Bee since - well - a long long time ago.

All requests taking longer than 15 minutes to complete will be charged at a rate of $60 per hour with a 30-minute minimum charge.

A headers service is available to provide readers with the date, page, headline, and story length of particular stories at 10 cents per header. The minimum charge is $3.00. Copies of printed stories on microfilm or microfiche will be $10.00 per copy. We are unable to provide articles produced by non-staff sources.

There are alternative resources available for you to use to obtain copies of articles that appear in The Bee.

You can purchase back issues of The Bee at newsstand prices for the past 30 days (while supplies last). Just come in and we'll be glad to help you. If your article is older than that, you can call or visit the Stanislaus County Free Library. The public library provides an index to local stories and keeps copies of The Bee. Their Reference Librarians are there to serve the public's information seeking needs.

If you would like us to perform a search of our archive, please call (209) 578-2392 or send an email to kaiello@modbee.com. Please be as complete as possible in your message. Remember, however, that there will be a charge for this service. Also, be advised that Bee Search questions are answered once a week as time allows.