Taking the printing presses of the defunct Bellevue Gazette by oxcart, he and J. H. Kellom were the authors of a handbook to the gold fields, published that year.

Robert W. Furnas, in 1859 associated with the Nebraska Advertiser, later recalled that Byers had bought the equipment of the defunct newspaper and had it taken by ox team to Denver, then in western Kansas Territory, where he used it in the publication of the Rocky Mountain News.

In 1863 Byers purchased Hot Sulphur Springs in northern Colorado from a Minnesota Sioux woman in a shady deal, causing the real owners, the Ute tribe, to unsuccessfully sue.

"[4] He was married to Elizabeth Byers who came to Denver during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush when it was a small settlement of tents.

[6] With Frances Wisebart Jacobs and Margaret Gray Evans, it was reorganized in 1872 to the Ladies Relief Society.

After the Byers couple vacated their mansion and farm, the house was demolished and the property was dedicated to the Denver Public Schools in 1921.

[8] A branch of the Denver Public Library had been named for Byers, but it was renamed in 2021, also in consideration of the Sand Creek Massacre.

[10] A 1964 episode of the Western anthology series Death Valley Days purported to be the story of the establishment of the Rocky Mountain News, with Byers portrayed by actor Jerome Courtland.