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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.
595 Episodes
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HIGH UP ON the side of Mount Hood, Timberline Lodge has over the years become an Oregon icon. Its rustic, WPA-financed design and construction strike most visitors as a good fit for the state’s general reputation for woodsy civility. But had it not been for a particularly persnickety U.S. Forest Service manager, Timberline might have looked a lot different... (Timberline Lodge, Clackamas County; 1920s, 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/20-08.timberline-lodge-skiway-bus.html)
Fresh from a 20-year stretch in the pen, the famous stagecoach robber known as 'The Gray Fox' found the world had changed and he would now have to learn to rob trains instead. His learning curve started in Portland and ended in disaster. (Troutdale, Multnomah County; 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1311b-bill-miner-train-robber-in-oregon.html)
After blowing his chance at a prosperous, respectable life in the Tygh Valley, the gambler and liquor man roared through frontier life as a keeper of rowdy saloons and bawdy joints before a Temperance crusader changed his life. (Part 2 of 2) (Wasco, Baker, Multnomah County; 1850s, 1860s, 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1312b-edouard-chambreau-part2-portland-years.html)
French-Canadian gambler started out as one of the most scurrilous rascals in the state, then reformed his ways and became one of its most earnest and effective reformers. This is the story of his early years. Part 1 of a 2-part series. (Lower Willamette River, Clackamas County; 1840s, 1850s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1312a-edouard-chambreau-part1-early-years.html)
The coroner ruled Thomas McMahon's death an accident, and everyone moved on. But the testimony of witness Eliza “Boneyard Mary” Bunets was suspicious and contradictory. Could she have gotten away with murder? (Portland, Multnomah County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1311a-did-boneyard-mary-murder-thomas-mcmahon.html)
Legendary author Frances Fuller Victor fell on hard times in the late 1870s. She never quit, but after she took a job writing for Hubert Howe Bancroft, he took credit for the books she wrote. (St. Helens, Columbia County; 1880s, 1890s, 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1504a.frances-fuller-victor-part2.333.html)
Frances Fuller Victor became the founding mother of all Oregon history, and one of its most important writers of all time. By the time she arrived in the Beaver State, she was already a well-known writer. (St. Helens, Columbia County; 1860s, 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1503e.frances-fuller-victor-part1.332.html)
In May of 1895, on the old San Francisco waterfront, four sailors signed onto the four-masted barkentine Arago for a voyage to Valparaiso, Chile (“and thence to such other foreign ports as the master might direct, and thence to return to the United States”) via Astoria.
By the time they got to Astoria, the four of them had had enough of conditions on the Arago. They stepped off the ship and essentially told the skipper, “We quit.”
In doing so, they changed history — and the legal status of sailors would never be the same. (Astoria, Clatsop County; 1890s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/20-11.arago-four-sailors-slavery-591.html)
He might have accomplished it, too, but he lost friends when he tried to claim water rights to Bull Run, and when his primary investors went bankrupt in a bank panic, he was forced to give up the scheme and leave town. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1502d.lafe-pence-guild-lake-scheme.327.html)
THE YEARS JUST after the discovery of germ theory were a great time to be a mainstream physician. By understanding, for the first time, the true vectors of disease, doctors suddenly found they were able to make real and undeniable changes in patient outcomes. But understanding those vectors — microbes — did something else too.... (Astoria, Clatsop County; 1900s, 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2504b1008c.bethenia-owens-adair-oregons-prometheus-697.084.html)
It was a remarkable start to an even more remarkable career — the more so as Bethenia was over 30 years old when she launched it. It was also not a “second act” career, but a fourth — she’d been a wife, then a teacher, then a hat-shop entrepreneur, and now a physician. She had seen much of the world, and conquered more than most. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1880s, 1890s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2504b1008c.bethenia-owens-adair-oregons-prometheus-697.084.html)
In Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, Shelley tells the story of a brilliant and gifted scientist-physician who reaches too far in his quest for knowledge, and dares to lay his hands on the power that rightly belongs only to the gods: that of the creation of life.
Oregon history has its own Modern Prometheus. She didn’t create and animate a monster out of corpse-parts, and the product of her overreach didn’t hunt her down with vengeance on its mind. But it has cast a terrible shadow over her legacy.... (Roseburg, Douglas County; 1870s, 1880s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2504b1008c.bethenia-owens-adair-oregons-prometheus-697.084.html)
Yesterday, in Part One of this story, we had just gotten to the part where the Tonquin had been blown up, marooning the Astorians on the far side of the continent.
But the damage done by the Tonquin and its captain, Jonathan Thorn, went far beyond the loss of the ship. Thorn’s bargaining style had not only cost the expedition its ship and stranded Fort Astoria in the wilderness, it had sent a really powerful message that the “Bostons” were dangerous and untrustworthy.... (Astoria, Clatsop County; 1810s, 1820s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2508a.1008b.astoria-party-saved-oregon-from-uk-704.083.html)
For most people today, the story of the original colony of Astoria is remembered — if it’s remembered at all — as a dismal failure. It was an ill-equipped party sent out by a rich guy in New York, which failed and was forced to sell out at fire-sale prices to the British.
And yeah, that’s all kind of true … but the most interesting thing about Fort Astoria is, if John Jacob Astor’s explorers had stayed home — or even left a year later than they did — the Oregon country would probably be part of Canada today.
Going a bit farther (and being quite a bit more speculative) — if Astor had made even slightly less awful hiring decisions when he launched the project, the British would likely have ended up locked out of the entire central West Coast, from Mexico to Alaska; and it’s possible, if not likely, that it would have become its own independent country, governed or ruled by Astor’s descendants.
To explain all that historical what-iffery, I need to give you a Cliff’s Notes version of the story of the Astoria project. (Astoria, Clatsop County; 1810s, 1820s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2508a.1008b.astoria-party-saved-oregon-from-uk-704.083.html)
Everyone thought John Hawk was stealing cattle, and he refused to talk about it. So one night, a group of cattlemen snuck into his camp and assassinated him — and were shocked by the frontier community's response. (Joseph, Wallowa County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1310d-john-hawk-murder-by-vigilantes.html)
The job got off to a bad start when the fireman escaped and sprinted for the nearby town. The main suspect in the robbery quickly left town, and a few months later was killed in a streetcar holdup in Washington. (Roseburg, Douglas County; 1890s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1502c.roseburg-train-robbery-jack-case.326.html)
The “Baritone Bandit” led a small group of desperados with a large cache of dynamite, and they got away with a good bit of loot from the Douglas County robbery. But one of the passengers saw behind the bandit's mask ... (Cow Creek Canyon, Douglas County; 1890s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1502b.cow-creek-train-robbery.325.html)
Extortionists, jailbreakers, safecrackers, jealous lovers and even truant students have, throughout the early years of Oregon history, found high explosives a powerful aid to their nefarious schemes. (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1501d.crime-and-dynamite.html)
Award-winning criminal mastermind/ motivational speaker Blackie DuQuesne shares a few key insights for aspiring train robbers on how to avoid “n00b mistakes” on a railroad heist. (1890s, 1900s, 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1501c.how-to-rob-trains-with-blackie-duquesne.html)
The sailor wanted to quit, but the captain didn't want him to; so he deposited a $60 'blood money' bonus with the British consul, as a reward if shanghaier Jim Turk could swindle him back aboard. Unfortunately, they killed him in the attempt. This kicked off a three-act courtroom drama oddly reminiscent of a Three Stooges episode. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1880s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1903e.frederick-kalashua-shanghaied-541.html)
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This podcast is amazing! I write a local Northwest travel blog at nearvancouverwausa.com and this gives me some great ideas. I will credit you if I go to any places you mention or if any of my destinations come from a rabbit trail that start one at your podcasts. Keep up the excellent work!
I love the podcast. Keep up the good work!
hey guys love the podcast but the text and pictures aren't working .
the pictures are not working