x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

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

00:09:40

Pioneer Courthouse square once the site of landmark...

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/06/13

The grand monument to the Gilded Age was a municipal architectural treasure and hosted U.S. presidents, but was razed in the 1950s to make way for a parking garage; all that remains is a wrought-iron rail. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1890s, 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1211b-pioneer-courthouse-square-once-palatial-hotel.html)

en-us

00:10:03

Oregon governor nearly became President; lucky for...

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/06/12

New York schemers sought to have former Oregon governor and Senator Joseph Lane named President. Had they succeeded, the Civil War likely would have been the North seceding from the South, and possibly an independent Pacific Republic in the West. (Salem, Marion County; 1860s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1412c.318.president-joseph-lane.html)

en-us

00:10:17

Horse racing, and fixing races, were wildly popular

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/06/11

THERE’S NOT A WHOLE LOT going on these days in the Eastern Oregon community of Jordan Valley (pop. 181). But 100 years ago, this tiny, remote hamlet was home to a racetrack that may have been the fastest in the Northwest. (Jordan Valley, Malheur County; 1890s, 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1909b.horse-racing-jordan-valley-homer-davenport-564.html)

en-us

00:12:49

Life in 1880s Salem and Portland, a banker's-eye view...

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/06/10

WPA writer Sara B. Wrenn's oral history interview with Cyrus Woodworth, a retired banker and former telegrapher living in Salem and Portland from the 1870s to the 1930s. He actually organized one of the first car races, a match between two 'merry Oldsmobile'-era horseless carriages that reached a top speed of 18 miles an hour. This also includes an account of an actual tar-and-feathering incident! (For the transcript, see https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001962 )

en-us

00:10:34

Man’s theft of widow’s home too much for jury

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/06/07

ESPECIALLY IN THE LATE 1800s, the Oregon frontier was no stranger to acts of judicial lynching – where the local legal system was corrupted to provide cover for murder. What’s more unusual, though, was an 1852 event that amounted to judicial cattle rustling. The cattle that the Benton County courts rustled belonged to a woman named Letitia Carson, and she was the widow of a recently naturalized Irishman named David Carson — or, rather, she would have been David’s widow, if the two of them had been

en-us

00:08:52

Boozy generosity turned tables for Prineville Nine

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/06/06

Wall Street financial wizard Thomas Lawson happened to be in town and betting on Prineville. With Silver Lake up 9-0 halfway through, he knew just what to do: Buy the other team a round of drinks ... or two, or three .... (Prineville, Crook County; 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1211a-thomas-lawson-mccall-boozy-baseball-fixer.html)

en-us

00:08:26

Timber baron made Coos Bay a shipbuilding capitol

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/06/05

Asa Mead Simpson came out West for the Gold Rush, but he soon learned there was more money in the timber that blanketed its hills than would ever be scratched out of its rapidly dwindling gold mines. (North Bend, Coos County; 1850s, 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1412b.317.asa-simpsons-empire.html)

en-us

00:08:25

Kiwanda dory fleet launch straight into the surf

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/06/04

“No one seems to know how the present Kiwanda dory evolved,” wrote Portland Oregonian wildlife editor Don Helm in a 1968 article, “but it revolutionized the sport and made Pacific City the dory capital of the world.” (Pacific City, Tillamook County; 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1909a.cape-kiwanda-dories-563.html)

en-us

00:16:51

Hard-rock mining in north Baker County (WPA...

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/06/03

WPA writer Manly Banister's oral history interview with Mrs. Kitty Gray. Mrs. Gray was involved in management of several hard-rock mines during the go-go years of Baker County company gold mining in the first quarter of the 20th century, especially in and around Cornucopia, and offered a lot of insights into the rough and dangerous life of a hard-rock miner back then. (For the transcript, see https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001928/ )

en-us

00:11:00

How Abe Tichner hustled rubes at 1870s county fair

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/05/31

The gregarious young entrepreneur usually cleared $2,500 – that’s the equivalent of $57,000 in modern currency – on each county fair. His profit margin hovered around 92 percent. How did he do it? By selling cheap cigars — wrapped in an expensive story. (Portland, Multnomah and Washington County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1912a.abe-tichner-frontier-portland-hustler.html)

en-us

00:11:09

John H. Mitchell, Oregon’s own Snidely Whiplash

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/05/30

John Hipple dumped his family, changed his name and moved West. A dozen years and a few easy-money real-estate swindles later, he was a hugely successful railroad-and-timber lawyer and a U.S. Senator. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1880s, 1890s, 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1210e-john-mitchell-oregons-snidely-whiplash.html)

en-us

00:07:46

Shouldn’t Oregon’s official language be Chinook?

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/05/29

Sure, most people speak English. But there’s an older language whose roots run far deeper in Oregon’s culture and history, and it’s one that nearly every Oregonian knows a word or two of. (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1411d.314.chinook-jargon.html)

en-us

00:11:00

Bad climbers kept getting stuck on Haystack Rock

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/05/28

It was a notoriously difficult climb, especially on the descent; but the 'idiots climbing Haystack Rock' dynamic didn't become a serious issue until after the helicopter was invented, and climbers started demanding that they be rescued. When they were, the propwash blew all the baby birds out of their nests and into the sea ... something had to be done — so, something was. (Cannon Beach, Clatsop County; 1950s, 1960s) (For text and pictures, see

en-us

00:26:07

Rural life in the Willamette Valley in the 1870s (WPA...

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/05/27

'When I asked Miss Spencer about her ancestors she exhibited a tree full of monkeys and said that they were the first one," writes WPA writer Walker Winslow in his oral history interview with Nettie Spencer, which he conducted in 1938 — a little over a decade after the famous 'Scopes Monkey Trial.' Spencer went on to give a wonderful description of frontier life in the Willamette Valley in the years after the Civil War. (For the transcript, see www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001960/ )

en-us

00:12:45

Mayors Lee, Schrunk set mid-century P-town tone

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/05/24

The history of Portland mayors in the 20th century largely comes down to the story of the struggle of progressive reformers against various forms of corruption and vice. Put that way, it sounds like a clean morality play: good vs. evil. But it’s a bit more complicated than that. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1911d.portland-mayors-part3of3.html)

en-us

00:11:16

In 1880s Portland, at least one mayor paid to play

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/05/23

When Dr. James Chapman was elected mayor of Portland in 1882, it was his third non-consecutive stint as P-town’s top executive. His previous two mayoralties had been relatively unremarkable. This one, his third and final stint, would be different. Things started out reasonably well, although a careful newspaper reader at the time might have detected some odd occurrences as Chapman began his term of office. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1890s, 1900s) (For text and pictures, see

en-us

00:11:25

Frontier Portland mayors could be drama queens

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/05/22

Over the years, the city of Portland has had its share of controversy and drama in the Mayor’s office. At times, the political tableaux in the top job in Oregon’s biggest town have ripened into scenes that wouldn’t be out of place in a Vaudeville act. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1860s, 1870s, 1880s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1911b.portland-mayors-part1of3.html)

en-us

00:24:59

Lonely Oregon boy grew up to be a comics legend

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/05/21

Sometime in April of 1960, a shy, retiring, hard-of-hearing comic-book artist named Carl Barks got a letter at his quiet suburban home. When he opened it, he found that it was a letter from a stranger named John Spicer. And to his astonishment, he found that it was — a fan letter.“Believe it or not, I have been planning this letter for about four or five years,” Spicer wrote. “I have been kept from doing so for the simple reason that I knew not your name or address. I tried several times, however,

en-us

00:08:37

Early songs and ballads, and memories of Homer...

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/05/20

WPA writer Sara B. Wrenn's oral history interview with Cora Ayers Jamerson, a 'small, alert gray-haired' widow and retired schoolteacher and apartment-house superintendent, in her neat but cluttered apartment in 1938. Mrs. Jamerson talked about the songs and ballads folks liked to sing in 1880s Portland. Her brother, John Ayers, was, she says, the man who invented the cigar-shaped seagoing log rafts that lumber magnate Simon Benson made famous. (For the transcript, see

en-us

00:11:17

Eugene’s first college died after president’s gunfight

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2024/05/17

Columbia College, atop College Hill in Eugene, was founded just before the Civil War. It closed after pro-slavery board members took over, and its president skipped town while under indictment for attempted murder; but while it lasted, it gave Eugene a taste for the college-town life that led directly to the founding of the University of Oregon 15 years later. (Eugene, Lane County; 1850s, 1860s) (For text and pictures, see

en-us

630 results

Similar Podcasts

The Old Front Line

Paul Reed

Today In History with The Retrospectors

The Retrospectors

جنود خلدهم التاريخ

ALSUMOOD PODCAST

Film History - Daily

Inception Point Ai

Madonna - Biography Flash

Inception Point Ai