Offbeat Oregon History podcast
Latest Episodes
Truck bombings doomed newspaper unions’ cause
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
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
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
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)
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
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
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
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
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)
WPA writer Sara B. Wrenn's short but interesting oral history interview with Mrs. John James of Lake Oswego...