NASA’s ‘Moon Trees’ have roots in Oregon forest fire

NASA’s ‘Moon Trees’ have roots in Oregon forest fire

Author: www.offbeatoregon.com (finn @ offbeatoregon.com) June 1, 2026 Duration: 8:36
Offbeat Oregon History podcast
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Astronaut Stuart Roosa had a special relationship with the U.S. Forest Service, and when it was his turn to go to the moon, he proposed a science experiment. You can see the results towering over Peavy Hall at Oregon State University today. (Cape Canaveral, Florida; 1970s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1405b.moon-trees-of-oregon.html)

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.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

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Podcast Episodes
Tillamook Burn ‘blew up’ with shocking speed [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:18
Quick action by state forester Lynn Cronemiller prevented the devastating forest fire from claiming hundreds of lives when a furnace-stoking wind blew in from Eastern Oregon, flogging the fire toward the sea. (Washington…
Tillamook Burn sprang from loggers’ bad gamble [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 8:08
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. Unfortunately, something did. (Forest Grove, Washington County; 1930s) (For…
Bunco Kelley, Coyote of P-town waterfront legend [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:03
Is there any truth to the stories of shanghaiings of the cigar-store Indian and of the dozens of dead guys found in the basement of the funeral parlor next door to the “Snug Harbor Saloon”? Well ... maybe. But then again…
Oregon’s most notorious shanghaier: Bunco Kelley [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:59
He was Portland's most notorious bad guy, with his fingers in everything from shanghaiing sailors to smuggling opium. But ironically, when he was finally sent to prison, it was for a murder he clearly didn't commit. (Por…
Legendary ‘Chief Bigfoot’ elusive as, well, Bigfoot [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:11
1860s Bannock leader disappeared as mysteriously as he appeared, leaving behind nothing but frontier folklore and a trail of 17-inch-long moccasin prints; a probably-untrue rumor claims Nampa, Idaho, was named after him.…
In 1880s, salmon were the “most dangerous catch” [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 11:20
Fishermen working in heavy 24-foot boats at the mouth of the Columbia kept getting sucked out onto the bar and drowning in its massive breakers. Their odds of not surviving a season were as high as 1 in 15. (Astoria, Cla…
Steamer wrecked by future Costa Rica admiral [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:26
Ashamed to show his face in Astoria after causing the loss of the biggest passenger liner on the West Coast, Thomas Doig slunk away to South America and remade himself as a military man. (Columbia River Bar, Clatsop Coun…
Frankie Baker found a home, and some peace, in Oregon [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 11:07
Sometime in 1915, a 40-year-old Black woman named Frankie Baker stepped off the train at Portland’s Union Station. She had come to stay; Oregon would be her home for the rest of her life. At that time, Portland had a a r…
‘Johnny’s’ Frankie lived in Portland, hiding from "her song" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:34
THE STORY TOLD in “Frankie and Johnny” is very well known — the song has been covered by at least 250 recording artists over the last 120 years. Mae West made it her theme song. Elvis Presley’s recording earned him a gol…
Charming gentleman by day, robber-poet by night [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:13
Charles “Black Bart” Bolton's neighbors in San Francisco thought his money came from ownership in gold mines. It turned out it came from furtive excursions northward to rob stagecoaches in Oregon and northern California.…

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