Offbeat Oregon History podcast

Offbeat Oregon History podcast


Latest Episodes

Ardyth Kennely interviews Newt McDaniel about the ghost town of Ellendale (WPA oral history)
December 25, 2023

In late 1937 or early 1938, writer Ardyth Gibbs (known to literary history today as Ardyth Kennely, author of several bestsellers in the 1950s) sat down with pioneer Newton McDaniel...

Childhood tree-planting memories for thousands
December 22, 2023

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Tillamook Burn ‘blew up’ with shocking speed
December 21, 2023

Quick action by state forester Lynn Cronemiller prevented the devastating forest fire from claiming hundreds of lives...

Tillamook Burn sprang from loggers’ bad gamble
December 20, 2023

A hard-pressed crew tried to snake just a few more logs out before quitting for the day, hoping nothing would go wrong in the tinder-dry forest....

War-games campaign blanketed Central Oregon
December 19, 2023

Tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers, shipped to the Beaver State for training, learned combat lessons that would save their lives and help them win the Second World War...

Reminiscences of Mrs. E.W. Wilson
December 18, 2023

In 1851, before Oregon was a state, a young schoolteacher named Elizabeth Millar stepped off a sternwheeler in Portland for the first time.

Oregon’s ‘tiger king’ became Idaho’s problem
December 15, 2023

ON THE EVENING of Sept. 28, 1995, Woney and Laurie Peters, of Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, were driving back to their home behind the local elementary school when they noticed something wasnt right....

Rosecrans rescue one of Coast Guard’s finest hours
December 14, 2023

Two motor lifeboat crews went out on the bar to save three surviving sailors. Both boats went to the bottom of the sea but...

Cursed or not, Rosecrans was one unlucky ship
December 13, 2023

The big oil tanker had weathered two major catastrophes in the previous year a stranding and a colossal fire. But for 33 doomed crew members, the third time would be the charm...

Pioneer Chinese doc was a city treasure in John Day
December 12, 2023

Settlers in John Day in the late 1800s learned the healer of Kam Wah Chung could cure diseases others couldn't...