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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 a1512nd 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

00:13:26

Oregon governor to U.S. President: Drop dead

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/07/18

IF THERE WERE a category in the Guinness Book of World Records for the state with the crankiest former governor, Oregon would surely hold the title.The state would have earned the record in 1886, when it elected Sylvester Pennoyer. And Pennoyer would have clinched it seven years later with a telegram he shot off to the President of the United States of America telling him, in essence, to mind his own damn business. His precise words: Washington: I will attend to my business. Let the president

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00:11:50

‘Crusade’ collapsed when leaders got too preachy

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/07/17

The saloon owners won in court, but the temperance ladies absolutely destroyed them in the court of public opinion. Delighted, the preachers and patriarchs who fancied themselves their leaders geared up for victory in the upcoming election ... and seriously overplayed their hand. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1902d.temperance-wars-4of4-536.html)

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00:11:50

Riot at bar led to charges … but not against rioters

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/07/16

Angry, surly saloonkeeper Walter Moffett attracted a large, hostile crowd with his harassment of a group of ladies holding a prayer service outside his bar. When the crowd rioted and trashed his saloon, he got the Portland police chief — also a saloon owner — to arrest them for instigating it. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1902c.temperance-wars-3of4-535.html)

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00:10:54

Stubborn saloonkeeper refused to play nice...

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/07/15

Very few of Portland's saloonkeepers threw firecrackers at the ladies of the Women's Temperance Prayer League and called them 'damn whores' when they came by to hold prayer services at their bars. But, as the old song goes, there's one in every crowd ... and it's usually Walter Moffett of the Webfoot Saloon. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1902b.temperance-wars-2of4-534.html)

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00:13:26

Portland’s “Temperance War of ’74”: The backstory...

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/07/14

Inspired by the successes of temperance activists back east, a group of Portland ladies decided to join the “crusade against that terrible villain, Demon Rum” and take their message of abstinance out of the churches and into the streets. They may have been surprised by the reaction they got.... (Portland, Multnomah County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1902a.temperance-wars-1of4-533.html)

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00:10:15

Wife acquitted of murder after shooting husband

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/07/11

DAWN WAS ONLY a couple hours away when 33-year-old lumber mill owner Gene Harington got home from a really long night. He pulled into the drive around 5:45 a.m., and immediately proceeded to wake up his pretty young wife, Virginia, along with their two babies (ages 1 and 2). Virginia tucked the two kids back into bed, and after that, an argument ensued. Virginia later said it was a bad one — at one point Gene threatened to kick her out of the house, and at another point he threatened to push her

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00:10:44

When Portland flooded, locals raised the sidewalks

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/07/10

But in 1861, the worst floods in state history turned the Willamette Valley into one giant half-million-acre lake and swept several burgeoning towns away. And, despite our flood-control dams, someday it will probably happen again. (Willamette Valley; 1860s, 1890s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1704c.willamette-floods-1894-1861-439.html)

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00:10:31

Huge 1934 P-town dock strike paralyzed the state

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/07/09

Half a century of winning labor disputes left the waterfront employers feeling overconfident. When the Portland longshoremen walked out, they expected it would be a repeat of earlier victories for them ... it wasn't. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1304a-1934-dock-strike-paralyzed-oregon.html)

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00:10:23

How Portland and Kaiser helped ‘save the Empire’

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/07/08

Arguably, the outcome of World War II became inevitable on the day the S.S. Star of Oregon slid into the Columbia River. It was followed by a torrent of new ships — far more than the Nazis could ever hope to sink. (Vanport, Multnomah County; 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1612c.portland-liberty-ships-saved-canada-422.html)

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00:10:12

Stubborn citizen, McCall teamed up for Bottle Bill

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/07/07

Litter enraged outdoor enthusiast Richard Chambers, so he launched a one-man campaign to pass a deposit bill. Then Gov. Tom McCall leaped aboard, and Oregon became the first state to ban nonreturnable bottles and cans. (Pacific City, Tillamook County; 1970s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1810c.1812.bottle-bill-tom-mccall.html)

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00:15:18

Empty-nester’s ‘second act’: Riverboat bordello madam

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/07/04

Paddlewheel riverboats and fancy bordello girls seem like a match made in pop-culture heaven, don’t they? Plush “parlour houses” and luxurious riverboats both were common in the “naughty nineties,” and both represented probably the closest thing to luxury a working man or woman would find in a frontier waterfront city like Portland or San Francisco, or even St. Louis or New Orleans. And yeah, there were times when the twain did meet in real life. Naïve farmboy Aquilla Ernest Clark was lured into

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00:10:55

The Fall of the House of Klux: Greed and hypocrisy...

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/07/03

Klan-backed politicians won a big victory that they interpreted as a mandate for ethnic and religious cleansing, then found out the hard way that they'd misjudged the voters' intentions. (Statewide; 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1304d-fall-of-the-house-of-klux.html)

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00:09:14

How the Ku Klux Klan got into power in ’20s Oregon (2...

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/07/02

The secret society of anonymous xenophobic vigilantes spread through Oregon society like a virus in 1922, and by the time elections were held that year, it was ready to seize the reins of power. But it wouldn't keep them for long. (Statewide, 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1304c-rise-of-the-ku-klux-klan-in-oregon.html)

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00:10:45

Klan in Oregon was a multilevel-marketing grift

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/07/01

How a sinister, secretive hate-group found acceptance in 1920s Oregon with its message of '100-percent Americanism' and pledges of a moral cleanup. But undertones of masked vigilantism were there from the very start. (Medford, Jackson County; 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1304b-ku-klux-klowns-kome-to-oregon.html)

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00:10:45

Dead hero-doctor’s identity stolen by serial swindler

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/06/30

When con artist Harry Virtue learned of Dr. Richard Barber's heroic demise, he guessed no one would bother to tell medical authorities in the UK. So he went there -- and, stealing Barber's name, went into practice. (Gardiner, Coos County; 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1810b.1812.fake-doctor-impersonator.html)

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00:20:55

Real-life femme fatale got her young lover to murder...

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/06/27

The newlyweds, Alvin and Gladys, were on a little vacation at the Big Chief Auto Court in Truckee, Calif. — it may have been their honeymoon — when they went out together to the local cinema to see “The Postman Always Rings Twice.”It was September of 1946, so it was the old film-noir version starring Lana Turner. As you’ll surely remember if you’ve seen it (or a more recent remake of it), this is a film in which Turner’s character, Cora Smith, seduces a drifter named Frank and convinces him to

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00:09:36

AWS spotted few enemies, but saved many friends

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/06/26

Although Oregon turned out to be harder for the Japanese navy to reach than folks thought, historian Bill McCash estimates the civilian plane-spotting service likely saved as many as 100 American aviators from dying in plane crashes. (Oregon Coast; 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1705a.aws-eyes-on-the-sky-442.html)

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00:10:02

Cottage Grove’s revenge for 'Nesmith County' incident...

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/06/25

South Lane and north Douglas counties felt their county seats neglected them and treated them as a tax-revenue milch cow. So they proposed seceding and forming a new county, Nesmith County. Eugene city leaders campaigned hard against the plan at the ballot box, and it was defeated. But a year or two later, the embittered south-county town got the opportunity to be revenged... and it was brutal. (Cottage Grove, Lane County; 1910s) (For text and pictures, see

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00:09:19

Pro-tip: Model T engines make bad airplane motors

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/06/24

Part of the problem with owning and operating the only flight school in town in the 1920s and 1930s was, every time one of your students slapped together some home-built piece of kit, you’d be expected to help fly it. And 'help fly it' usually translated into 'go first.' (BEND, DESCHUTES COUNTY; EARLY 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1811b.ted-barber-diy-test-pilot-521.html)

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00:10:03

Portland’s play to beat The Dalles literally cost a mint

Offbeat Oregon History podcast ·

2025/06/23

Gasping for hard currency to finance the Civil War, and awash in raw gold from two Eastern Oregon gold rushes, the federal government tried to build a mint in The Dalles in 1863. But the Oregon delegation, dominated by Portland interests, would not stop trying to switch its location to Portland ... finally, the gold rush petered out, and the feds said, 'Never mind!' (The Dalles, Wasco County; 1860s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1810d.the-dalles-mint-that-wasnt-519.html)

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561 results

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