Offbeat Oregon History podcast
Latest Episodes
Company town of Valsetz is now just a memory
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’
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
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
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
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
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
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
They never did see any action against the Japanese spies and commando teams they expected. But...
Canadians rescued sailors; their reward was prison
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
Tiny Willow Creek became a wall of water, swept away a third of the town and killed 247 people...