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Offbeat Oregon History podcast

Offbeat Oregon History podcast

Author: www.offbeatoregon.com (finn @ offbeatoregon.com) Language: English Episodes: 50
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The Offbeat Oregon History Podcast is a daily service from the Offbeat Oregon History newspaper column. Each weekday morning, a strange-but-true story from Oregon's history from the archives of the column is uploaded. An exploding whale, a few shockingly scary cults, a 19th-century serial killer, several very naughty ladies, a handful of solid-brass con artists and some of the dumbest bad guys in the history of the universe. Source citations are included with the text version on the Web site at https://offbeatoregon.com.
Episodes
Japanese shipwrecks on coast predate Columbus [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:08
The case of John Ottoson (ne Otokichi) in 1832 illustrates what can happen: Blown off to sea by a gale, he and his comrades rode the Kuroshio Current to Washington State — much to the astonishment of Dr. John McLoughlin.…
‘Automo-bubble’ a part of Deschutes railroad war [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 16:11
Upon his arrival in The Dalles in 1909 in quest of a job on the railroad, 19-year-old Jim Morrell was met by a friend — probably the one who’d told him there was work to be had. Morrell’s friend staked him to a meal and…
Gun-toting ‘Wildcat’ was nation’s first ‘shock jock’ [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 11:12
Robert Gordon Duncan was the first radio broadcaster ever to be sent to prison for cursing on the air. For the first six months of 1930, the entire city was riveted to his radio show, wondering who he'd slander next. (Po…
Portland’s Pioneer Square pitched as ‘crystal palace’ [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 8:58
Mayor Frank Ivancie, Pioneer Courthouse Square’s most intransigent opponent, gleefully declared the project “dead” in a 1982 speech. In doing so, he accidentally galvanized the citizen group that would prove him wrong. (…
Mountain town of Bourne was home of a magnificent swindle [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 8:10
Though home to some productive mines, the Blue Mountain boomtown made much of its money working the suckers back east; then its head honcho disappeared into the night with the money, hours ahead of the law. (For text and…
Did primitive Hug Point Road save our beaches? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 11:09
SOMETIME AROUND 1908, a resident of south Clatsop County — probably from the hamlet of Arch Cape — got sick and tired of dealing with Hug Point, and decided to do something about it. — It was a decision that had some uni…
Pioneer Chinese doc was a city treasure in John Day [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:56
Settlers in John Day in the late 1800s learned the healer of Kam Wah Chung could cure diseases others couldn't; all his patients survived the fatal Spanish Flu epidemic in 1919. (John Day, Grant County; 1880s, 1890s, 190…
Valley was Oregon Trail’s eden, used-ox dealership [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 6:58
The Grand Ronde Valley was a little pocket of temperate, well-watered land, tucked into some of the most inhospitable territory on the trail, was a real lifesaver for many an emigrant. But, that didn't stop them from gri…
The world’s smallest natural harbor used to be even smaller [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 6:37
Tiny coastal town was once known for the oldest privately owned aquarium in U.S.; it’s a popular place for stormwatchers. (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1012c_depoe-bay-worlds-smallest-harbor.html)

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