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PODCAST

Offbeat Oregon History podcast

www.offbeatoregon.com (finn @ offbeatoregon.com)

A daily (5-day-a-week) podcast feed of true Oregon stories -- of heroes and rascals, of shipwrecks and lost gold. Stories of shanghaied sailors and Skid Road bordellos and pirates and robbers and unsolved mysteries. An exploding whale, a couple 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. From the archives of the Offbeat Oregon History syndicated newspaper

history places & travel

All Episodes

00:10:52

Prohibition sting ended with a deadly gunfight

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/12/10

IF YOU LOOK UP Prohibition Agent Glenn H. Price on the “Fallen Agents” page at www.atf.gov, you’ll get a very brief account of his death:“Prohibition Agents Glenn H. Price and Grover Todd were attempting to arrest a bootlegger named Phillip Warren in Grand Ronde, Ore. Warren escaped, obtained a rifle, and killed both agents. Warren was later taken into custody and charged with murder under state law.” All of which is true … in the same way that “Using dynamite on a beached whale in 1970 led to

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00:10:04

Town’s emergency wood money is still legal tender

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/12/09

IN EARLY FEBRUARY of 1933, the mayor and city council of North Bend had a big problem on their hands. It was, of course, the depths of the Great Depression — possibly the deepest of the depths. Former Oregonian President Herbert Hoover was still in office, but it was the interregnum — he’d been voted out of office three months earlier, so he was the lamest of lame ducks. All across the country, confidence in institutions like banks was at an all-time low. Every American with money in a bank

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00:12:37

Bunny-massacre parties were big social events

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/12/08

Imagine, for a moment, that you’re passing through a little Harney County town when you see, in a used-car lot, a DMC DeLorean that someone has modified as a replica of the car from Back to the Future. It even has a replica flux capacitor, and the readout of the dates in old-school LED readouts on the dash.The price is right, so you buy it, and immediately you want to take it out on the highway and see what the replica equipment does when you hit 88 miles an hour. Twiddling the knobs, you set the

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00:09:13

Corvallis man found cows make lousy boat engines

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/12/05

The “Genius of Corvallis” hoped his cattle-powered riverboat would give the upper-Willamette sternwheelers a run for their money; and so it did, so long as it didn't try to go upstream... (Corvallis, Benton County; 1850s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1706c.cow-powered-riverboat-hay-burner-448.html)

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00:09:20

Alcoholic shipmate drank snake-preserving whiskey

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/12/04

Stranded for the winter on Sauvie Island, the members of Nathaniel Wyeth's trading post struggled to get enough to eat. But for some of them, the greater problem was finding something to drink. (Sauvie Island, Multnomah and Columbia County; 1830s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1707d.townsend-lizard-liquor-453.html)

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00:10:28

Schemers’ plans to exploit Multnomah Falls failed

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/12/03

Original owners of the falls tried for years to log it, but the steamship and railroad moguls were making a lot of money on excursion trips, so they blocked the scheme, preserving the falls for today's park. (Columbia River Gorge, Multnomah County; 1890s, 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1707e.fight-for-multnomah-falls-454.html)

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00:11:07

Shanghai tunnels mostly a myth...or are they?

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/12/02

In the glory days of Portland shanghaiing, sailors were 'helped back aboard ship' on the city streets; there was no need for a tunnel to sneak them down to the docks. But the tunnels under the saloons and streets were useful for lots of other shanghaiing-related activities ... (Portland, Multnomah County; 1890s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1905d.shanghai-tunnels-based-on-true-story-549.html)

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00:08:48

Tarzan fans are grateful for gold miner’s failure

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/12/01

Had Edgar Rice Burroughs and his brothers been successful with their Snake River gold dredge, Ed likely would never have had the time or inspiration to start writing “John Carter of Mars,” “At the Earth's Core” and “Tarzan” books. (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1503b.edgar-rice-burroughs-in-oregon.html)

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00:11:44

Riverboat party turned out to be shanghaiing trick

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/11/28

One fine day in October of 1891, a teenage boy named Aquilla Ernest Clark left the farm in Scappoose where he’d been working, headed for Portland. He was going to see the sights and maybe show himself a good time for a few days.He wandered around the waterfront, taking drinks here and there and probably taking a hand in a card game or two; then, when it was getting close to evening, he met a pleasant fellow who happened to mention that he was staying at the sailors’ boardinghouse at Second and

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00:09:40

Skipper doubled down on a bad bet ... and lost it all

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/11/27

ONE GRAY OCTOBER day in 1898, three British ship captains were sitting in the parlor of the Seamen’s Rest, a sort of YMCA for sailors located in the bustling port of Tacoma. They were in a betting mood. One of them, although he didn’t know it, was gambling with his life. All three skippers captained full-rigged windjammers. They were H.A. Lever of the Imerhorne; David Thompson of the Earl of Dalhousie; and Charles McBride of the 265-foot clipper Atalanta. Atalanta, you may recall, was the

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00:11:16

Bad recording technique led to FBI investigation

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/11/26

Portland band The Kingsmen recorded the song quickly and cheaply, and the words they were singing were unintelligible. But when the song became a hit, fans started guessing at the lyrics ... and some of them had rather dirty minds.... (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1312d-louie-louie-kingsmen-fbi-investigation.html)

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00:11:05

P-town’s rabbi got in gun fight at President’s hotel

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/11/25

Oct. 1, 1880, was a very big day in Portland.For the first time in the history of the city or the state, a sitting President of the United States had come to visit. President Rutherford B. Hayes had arrived in Portland the night before and was staying in the Esmond Hotel, the nicest in Portland at the time, on the corner of Morrison and Front streets. Portland was, of course, very much a frontier town in 1880, still dotted with the stumps of the trees that had been cleared to make room for it. So

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00:08:43

Shipwrecked sailors had to paddle 200 miles to safety

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/11/24

While the captain of the Emily G. Reed was sadly reporting the loss of 11 brave mariners, four of the missing were adrift, desperately bailing water out of a damaged and leaky lifeboat. Destination: Puget Sound. (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1503a.shipwreck-emily-g-reed.328.html)

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00:07:08

City-bus-powered cable car scheme was epic flop (Part...

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/11/21

IF THE IDEA of cable car service to Timberline Lodge strikes you as a not particularly bad one, you’re not alone. Over the years since the Wyler group proposed the glass-and-steel mountaintop skyscraper, several proposals have been floated for cable-car service up the mountain. So far, only one has been built, and it was an immediate and colossal failure: The Skiway Tram project. (Government Camp, Clackamas County; 1950s) (For text and pictures, see

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00:08:29

Timberline could have been a gaudy skyscraper (Part 1...

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/11/20

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

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00:09:24

Outlaw Bill Miner’s first train robbery was a fiasco

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/11/19

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)

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00:12:30

Taming of the Rascal: Chambreau’s redemption (Part 2...

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/11/18

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)

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00:09:36

A crooked gambler’s-eye view of frontier Oregon (Part...

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/11/17

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)

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00:10:20

Was suspicious death in ‘boneyard’ really murder?

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/11/14

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)

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00:08:50

'Mother of Oregon History' earned praise, but little...

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/11/13

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)

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608 results

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