Offbeat Oregon History podcast

Offbeat Oregon History podcast


Latest Episodes

Truck bombings doomed newspaper unions’ cause
October 25, 2024

But the strike enabled Oregon Journal's trustees to sell the paper, in defiance of its former owner's direct bequest, to the owners of the Oregonian...

His cheating heart cost Oregon journalism dearly
October 24, 2024

Was the shooting of Donald Newhouse the action of a union thug, related to the strike at the Oregonian and Journal? Or...

The wreck of the U.S.S. Shark: Navy’s loss was Cannon Beach’s gain
October 23, 2024

The captain's desperate haste to get out to sea, combined with a terrible decision to cross the bar on the ebb, resulted in disaster...

U.S.S. Shark doomed by skipper’s fear of desertion
October 22, 2024

As sailors melted away to take advantage of the opportunities in the new Oregon country, their captain sweated bullets; they could not be replaced. But...

The legendary Tabitha Brown of Forest Grove, founder of Pacific University (go Boxers) (Part 1 of 2; WPA oral-history interview with Mrs. H.A. Lewis)
October 21, 2024

WPA writer Sara B. Wrenn's 1939 oral history interview with Mrs. H.A. Lewis, granddaughter of the legendary Tabitha Moffat Brown...

Victor Strode: Oregon’s own real-life Tom Swift
October 18, 2024

ON THE MORNING of April 23, 1936, the city of Portland was proudly preparing to launch its new harbor-patrol and first-aid boat, the Jack Luihn....

Oregon was only state with race-exclusion policy
October 17, 2024

In a country divided between slave states and free states just before the Civil War, Oregon was the only example of a third alternative....

Blimp squadron was first line of defense against enemy subs, balloon bombs
October 16, 2024

Massive K-series airships were housed in the largest clear-span wood buildings in the world, near Tillamook....

Oregon’s Atomic-age ‘gold rush’: Uranium mining
October 15, 2024

As the Cold War spun up, federal government guarantees sent thousands of Geiger Counter-packing prospectors in Army surplus Jeeps scrambling...

1939, and the Livin' is Easy (WPA oral-history interview with Mrs. John James)
October 14, 2024

WPA writer Sara B. Wrenn's short but interesting oral history interview with Mrs. John James of Lake Oswego...