Offbeat Oregon History podcast

Offbeat Oregon History podcast


Latest Episodes

Company town of Valsetz is now just a memory
December 19, 2022

The little company town was located smack in the middle of the country's most productive tree-growing land; so ...

The bloody manhunt for ‘king of western outlaws’
December 16, 2022

Fresh from breaking out of jail in Utah, Harry Tracy apparently came to Portland looking for a fresh start; he married, and then for three years kept his nose clean. But...

Tangent City Hall office cat was the city’s landlord
December 15, 2022

Willamette Valley town's mascot was the state's wealthiest housecat; he owned City Hall along with the farm it was built on...

Activist stopped state plan to forcibly sterilize people
December 14, 2022

Legendary physician Dr. Bethenia Owens-Adair was an unstoppable force battling to get a eugenic-sterilization law passed ...

Camp Adair, Oregon’s second-largest city, built in six months
December 13, 2022

Bustling metropolis of 40,000 lasted just six years before being turned, by order of the U.S. Government, into a ghost town...

‘Atlantic City of the West’ was swallowed by the sea
December 12, 2022

A poorly engineered jetty was installed at the mouth of Tillamook Bay changed the oceans currents, and over the following three decades the sea relentlessly scoured away the town. ...

Newcomer’s stinginess with ‘his’ beach led to massive drug bust
December 09, 2022

On December 6, 1977, a car pulled past the conspicuous No Trespassing and Beware of Dog signs at the perimeter of Arthur Allens oceanside ranch, about ten miles south of Bandon. Three men got out

‘Sand pounders’ of Coast Guard kept beaches secure
December 08, 2022

They never did see any action against the Japanese spies and commando teams they expected. But...

Canadians rescued sailors; their reward was prison
December 07, 2022

After the rumrunner ship Pescawah responded to an S.O.S. from a sinking steam schooner, the Coast Guard pounced...

America's deadliest natural flash flood happened in Heppner
December 06, 2022

Tiny Willow Creek became a wall of water, swept away a third of the town and killed 247 people...