Shanghaiing in Portland: P-town's time as shanghaiing capital of the world (2 of 2)

Shanghaiing in Portland: P-town's time as shanghaiing capital of the world (2 of 2)

Author: www.offbeatoregon.com (finn @ offbeatoregon.com) January 23, 2026 Duration: 9:31
AS OF THE time of this writing, there is some disagreement over the status of Oregon’s largest city. It all came to a head last month when the President of the United States referred to it as “war-ravaged Portland” in a Tweet, and locals responded by going on Amazon and buying every inflatable frog costume they could get their hands on. Interesting times, indeed! A little over 100 years ago, though, you could have made the case that parts of Portland were — not war-ravaged, exactly, but probably the most dangerous city in North America in which to go out drinking. But the risk you ran wasn’t getting killed, injured, or — uh, ravaged. It was the risk of waking up the next morning with a splitting headache and a bad case of seasickness, on board a barque headed for Liverpool. With an angry first mate screaming at you to get up and get to work and probably giving you a few kicks in the ribs to drive the point home that, whatever you thought your occupation was last night, this morning you were a sailor. (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2511a1006c.portland-shanghaiing-capital-of-world-710.076.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

Offbeat Oregon History podcast
Podcast Episodes
P-town mansion was once home of starvation cult [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:08
The motto of Kate Ann Williams' cult was “Pray and be Cured,” and adherents went on rigorous 40-day fasts that occasionally killed them. The cult disappeared after its leader, who was Mayor George Williams' wife, starved…
Oregon man’s wife killed his SCOTUS appointment [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 8:58
Senate committee went from a solid consensus to confirm George H. Williams, to a firm determination not to, in just one week. The cause? Most believed it was because of the arrogant attitude of Mrs. Williams toward the s…
‘Cape Foulweather Light’ built on the wrong cape [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 8:47
Today known properly as Yaquina Head Light, the state's tallest lighthouse is a popular tourist attraction, and until recently was the home of the nation's only wheelchair-accessible tidepools. (For text and pictures, se…
Body snatchers plotted to steal dead mayor’s corpse (Part 1 of 2) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:43
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY was a kind of golden age of body snatching. Digging up the freshly dead to cash the corpse in at the back door of a nearby medical school was — well, not common exactly, but far from unheard-of. So…
‘Blue Ruin’ drove Oregon to drink—and prohibition [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 11:34
Before Oregon was even a state, its territorial government outlawed all booze. Why? It all has to do with a fellow who could probably be called the true founder of the city of Portland — and his ever-bubbling moonshine s…
Larry Sullivan's 'second act' career dwarfed his first (Part 2 of 2) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 12:03
BY THE TIME George Graham Rice met Larry Sullivan at Sullivan and Grant’s “palace” in Goldfield, he was doing a booming business in Nevada as the owner and copywriter of an advertising agency, working with the local mine…
Boss shanghaier Sullivan’s mining-stock fraud career (Part 1 of 2) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:49
Smooth, polished, well-connected and ruthless, Larry Sullivan was essentially the Boss Tweed of the Portland waterfront from the early 1890s right up to the moment the music stopped. But in 1904, as the upcoming Lewis an…
Brides were stripped of U.S. citizenship at the altar [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:14
Women who'd married German men suddenly learned they'd been legally (and very unconstitutionally) made stateless, and were forced to register as 'enemy aliens'; those who'd married Chinese men fared even worse. (Statewid…
Oregonians had the jump on California Gold Rush [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:46
If you’d been lucky enough to live in Portland in July of 1848, you would have been able to say, literally, that your ship had come in. The ship in question was the sailing ship Honolulu. And, funny thing: she arrived in…