Offbeat Oregon History podcast
1,079 episodes - English - Latest episode: 19 days ago - ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsA 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 column. Source citations are included with the text version on the Web site at https://offbeatoregon.com.
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Episodes
Riverboats on Willamette towed barns, fetched fish
July 05, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes - 8.42 MBThe Willamette River was running high and wild on the morning of Feb. 5, 1890, as Alden and Arthur Graham set out from Oregon City in their sternwheel riverboat for the daily run to Portland. They arrived in Portland in what must have been record time, dodging logs and small floating buildings along the way, and promptly canceled the return trip. It was just too dangerous to even try charging into the teeth of all the fast-moving debris. But after they arrived, they learned that theirs wa...
For teenage sailor, visit to Portland ended in a life sentence
July 04, 2024 14:00 - 11 minutes - 10.2 MBLike the hero of an 1800s “cautionary tale,” 17-year-old Joseph Swards stepped off the ship, fell in with bad company, got caught up in a robbery that went horribly wrong — and in the end was lucky he wasn't hanged. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1212b-young-adventurers-visit-to-portland-ended-in-prison.html)
Roseburg’s ‘Champagne Riot’ was probably not what you think
July 03, 2024 14:00 - 8 minutes - 7.66 MBThe year after the Civil War ended, the partisans of North and South still clung to their resentments in Douglas County. On Christmas Day, those hard feelings broke out in a knock-down-drag-out that left two men dead. (Roseburg, Douglas County; 1860s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1412d.319.champagne-riot-civil-war-battle.html)
Tall talker from The Dalles was Oregon's own 'International Murderer o' Mystery'
July 02, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes - 7.47 MBHe called himself James Cook, and spoke with an English accent. But when asked about his past, he spun fanciful and ever-changing stories full of world travels, tiger hunts, shanghaiings and the like; he went to his death a total enigma. (The Dalles, Wasco County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1710b.john-cook-international-murderer-of-mystery-464.html)
Ben Holladay, Abigail Scott Duniway were old friends of hers (WPA oral-history interview with Minerva Thessing)
July 01, 2024 14:00 - 23 minutes - 21.5 MBWPA writer Sara B. Wrenn's oral history interview with Minerva Thessing. Ms. Thessing grew up near Milwaukie in the 1860s and was friends with some of Oregon's most famous pioneer characters, from Ben Holladay to Abigail Scott Duniway. She also seems to have had a knack for psychic matters. (For the transcript, see https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001996/ )
West Coast was the Detroit of fishboat engines
June 28, 2024 14:00 - 8 minutes - 8.04 MBThe engines that went into these old-school boats were slow, heavy, primitive, and built in one of several factories in San Francisco. In fact, until the mid-1930s San Francisco Bay was the Detroit of the marine-engine industry; the Union Gas Engine Company, est. 1885, was one of the very first manufacturers of gasoline engines of any kind in the U.S. (Astoria, Clatsop County; 1880-1920) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1912d.west-coast-fishboat-engines.html)
How the Prineville Vigilantes were defeated without a shot
June 27, 2024 14:00 - 8 minutes - 7.91 MBCrook County citizens finally decided they'd had enough of the secretive lynchings and killings; they banded together and defeated the gang of masked riders without a single shot being fired. (Prineville, Crook County; 1880s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1212a-prineville-vigilantes-defeated-without-a-shot.html)
Lynching kicked off scary vigilante era in Prineville
June 26, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes - 8.46 MBIn Crook County, the early 1880s were like something out of a Louis L'Amour novel: Masked riders galloping around by night, dispensing what they saw as justice. It all started with the lynching of an innocent man. (Part 1 of 2) (Prineville, Crook County; 1880s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1211d-lynching-kicked-off-vigilante-rule-in-prineville.html)
To return to sea, ship had to ‘sail’ through the woods
June 25, 2024 14:00 - 12 minutes - 11.4 MBAfter Columbia Lightship broke its lines and drifted ashore, the salvage bid was won by a house-moving company from Portland — which, rather than trying to pull the stranded ship off the beach, built a road, trucked it over the peninsula, and launched it in Baker Bay. (Columbia River Bar, Clatsop County; 1890s, 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1710a.lightship-saved-by-house-movers-463.html)
The fortune-telling mind reader's story (WPA oral-history interview with 'Miss Smith')
June 24, 2024 14:00 - 19 minutes - 17.4 MBWPA writer William C. Haight's 1939 oral history interview with a fascinating fortune-teller he identified only as 'Miss Smith,' in her tea-room business in Portland's Carlton Hotel. (For the transcript, see https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001945/ )
Storied editor lost feud with Oregon’s first woman doc
June 21, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes - 10 MBOn any list of Oregon “firsts,” there’s one name that almost never pops up - Dr. Adaline M. Weed. Which is understandable, because although Dr. Weed was the first female physician in the Oregon Territory, she was not a “regular” doctor – she was a hydropathist, a practitioner of “water cure.” Maybe that's why, today, when asked who the Oregon Territory’s first female physician was, most people who think they know the answer (including, until just last week, me!) will say, “Bethenia Owens-Ada...
Horrifying asylum poison mix-up left dozens dead
June 20, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes - 8.48 MBSent downstairs to fetch a pan of powdered milk, a kitchen assistant at the Oregon State Hospital dipped his scoop into the wrong bin — and brought back six pounds of roach poison. It was mixed into the eggs and fed to 467 people. (Salem, Marion County; 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1211c-asylum-kitchen-mixup-killed-hundreds-with-scrambled-eggs.html)
West Coast’s first novel was a torrid page-turner
June 19, 2024 14:00 - 11 minutes - 10.4 MBShe had a record of uninhibited and acerbic writing; she was preparing what appeared to be a super-racy tell-all memoir; and she had just secured a divorce from a prominent community member about whom they’d all heard some pretty tantalizing rumors. What was not to like? (French Prairie, Marion County; 1850s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1909d.margaret-bailey-oregons-first-authoress-2of2-566.html)
Oregon’s literary legacy built on “true confession”
June 18, 2024 14:00 - 11 minutes - 11 MBMARGARET JEWETT BAILEY WAS not only Oregon’s first author of novel-length fiction, she was also the West Coast’s first published female author, and its first female newspaper journalist. She was also one of the most colorful characters of a remarkably colorful age. She could be absolutely savage when she felt the situation called for it ... and, in fairness, it has to be admitted that her situation seemed to call for it rather a lot. (French Prairie, Marion County; 1850s) (For text and pict...
He's been workin' on the railroad, all the livelong day (WPA oral-history interview with Joseph Stangler, former railroad worker)
June 17, 2024 14:00 - 19 minutes - 17.6 MBWPA writer William C. Haight's oral history interview with Joseph Stangler, a 62-year-old veteran of James J. Hill's railroad building workcrews who was reinventing himself as a concrete artist. This oral history is a fascinating glimpse into the life and work of one of the wandering workmen who lived a hobo-ish lifestyle, riding the rails and working odd jobs, in the last decade or two of the 19th century. (For the transcript, see https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001949/ )
Governor’s kindness led to fatal consequences
June 14, 2024 14:00 - 13 minutes - 12.8 MBAS EVERY SENSIBLE person knows, there is pretty much no such thing as being “cruel to be kind.” Sometimes it does work the other way around, though. Every now and then you run across a story in which someone did something that was intended as a kindness, but turned out to be anything but. Such a case happened in the office of Oregon Governor Oswald West, sometime in 1912. It had to do with a little shooting scrape that Z.H. Stroud, an acquaintance of West’s, had gotten into in the little fro...
Pioneer Courthouse square once the site of landmark hotel
June 13, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes - 8.86 MBThe 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)
Oregon governor nearly became President; lucky for us, he didn’t
June 12, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes - 9.21 MBNew 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)
Horse racing, and fixing races, were wildly popular
June 11, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes - 9.42 MBTHERE’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)
Life in 1880s Salem and Portland, a banker's-eye view (WPA oral-history interview with Cyrus Woodworth)
June 10, 2024 14:00 - 12 minutes - 11.7 MBWPA 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 )
Man’s theft of widow’s home too much for jury
June 07, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes - 9.69 MBESPECIALLY 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 h...
Boozy generosity turned tables for Prineville Nine
June 06, 2024 14:00 - 8 minutes - 8.12 MBWall 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)
Timber baron made Coos Bay a shipbuilding capitol
June 05, 2024 14:00 - 8 minutes - 7.73 MBAsa 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)
Kiwanda dory fleet launch straight into the surf
June 04, 2024 14:00 - 8 minutes - 7.71 MB“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)
Hard-rock mining in north Baker County (WPA oral-history interview with Mrs. Kitty Gray)
June 03, 2024 14:00 - 16 minutes - 15.4 MBWPA 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/ )
How Abe Tichner hustled rubes at 1870s county fair
May 31, 2024 14:00 - 11 minutes - 10.1 MBThe 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)
John H. Mitchell, Oregon’s own Snidely Whiplash
May 30, 2024 14:00 - 11 minutes - 10.2 MBJohn 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)
Shouldn’t Oregon’s official language be Chinook?
May 29, 2024 14:00 - 7 minutes - 7.11 MBSure, 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)
Bad climbers kept getting stuck on Haystack Rock
May 28, 2024 14:00 - 11 minutes - 10.1 MBIt 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 https://offbeatoregon.com/1908d.haystack-rock-cl...
Rural life in the Willamette Valley in the 1870s (WPA oral-history interview with Nettie Spencer)
May 27, 2024 14:00 - 26 minutes - 23.9 MB'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/ )
Mayors Lee, Schrunk set mid-century P-town tone
May 24, 2024 14:00 - 12 minutes - 11.7 MBThe 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)
In 1880s Portland, at least one mayor paid to play
May 23, 2024 14:00 - 11 minutes - 10.3 MBWhen 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 https://offbeat...
Frontier Portland mayors could be drama queens
May 22, 2024 14:00 - 11 minutes - 10.5 MBOver 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)
Lonely Oregon boy grew up to be a comics legend
May 21, 2024 14:00 - 24 minutes - 22.9 MBSometime 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, h...
Early songs and ballads, and memories of Homer Davenport (WPA oral-history interview with Mrs. Cora Ayers Jamerson)
May 20, 2024 14:00 - 8 minutes - 7.9 MBWPA 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 https://www.loc.gov/it...
Eugene’s first college died after president’s gunfight
May 17, 2024 14:00 - 11 minutes - 10.3 MBColumbia 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 https://offbeatoregon.com/1908c.columbia-college-gunfighter-president-...
‘Harmonial Brotherhood’ free-love cult was a disaster
May 16, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes - 8.41 MBThe catastrophic failure of several of the Utopian cult's articles of faith — especially on matters of diet and health care — had doomed the community to misery and sickness before it even got a start. (Central America; 1850s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1412a.luelling-love-cult-part2.316.html)
Oregon nursery industry founder’s ‘Free Love’ cult
May 15, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes - 9.15 MBFormer devout Quaker Henderson Luelling developed some odd beliefs in late middle age, founded a cult called “Harmonial Brotherhood,” and led his followers into the Central American wilderness. It did not go well. (Milwaukie, Clackamas County; 1840s, 1850s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1411e.315.luelling-love-cult-part1.html)
‘Miner 29ers’ beat the Depression with gold pan
May 14, 2024 14:00 - 7 minutes - 6.51 MBWhen the Great Depression hit, many Oregonians decided to head for mining claims. The life of a gold miner was rustic and tough, but in an age of bread lines and 'hoovervilles,' it beat the alternative. (Southern and Central Oregon; 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1908b.gold-rush-of-1933-560.html)
Life around Oswego Lake, and square dancing (WPA oral-history interview with C.T. Dickinson)
May 13, 2024 14:00 - 12 minutes - 11.4 MBWPA writer Sara B. Wrenn's oral history interview with pioneer Oswego resident C.T. Dickinson, recalling how the land was when the lake was thick with fish and ducks and people were thin on the land. Dickinson also served as a square-dance caller, so if you're yearning for some traumatic memories of elementary-school P.E. class, you won't want to miss this one. (For the transcript, see https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001967/ )
Skill, stout shipbuilding kept wreck fatality-free
May 10, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes - 9.18 MBReally, the only reason the U.S.S. Peacock didn’t break into pieces and drown all hands within hours of slamming into the sand was that it was a United States Navy ship. That meant it was crewed by some of the best-trained sailors in the world, and built solidly enough for iron shot to bounce off its sides. (Columbia River Bar, Clatsop County; 1840s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1911a.peacock-spit-shipwreck.html)
Guild Lake was P-town’s water wonderland
May 09, 2024 14:00 - 8 minutes - 7.95 MBThe hordes of awestruck visitors who admired the scenery at the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition would have been shocked if they'd known the beautiful little lake would be gone in 20 years — filled in for industrial lands. Not a trace remains. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1210d-guilds-lake-portlands-water-wonderland.html)
Wreck of the U.S. Grant: A weird historical mystery
May 08, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes - 8.27 MBThe little riverboat came loose from its moorings during a storm and floated downriver and onto the deadly bar with the owners aboard. How could such a thing have happened? Did someone do it on purpose? (Astoria, Clatsop County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1411c.313.us-grant-suspicious-shipwreck.html)
Politicians’ plan for Army to seize gold mines foiled
May 07, 2024 14:00 - 7 minutes - 7.05 MBSome Eastern politicians had a plan for paying down Civil War debt: Send in the Army, with the aid of foreign troops, and seize all the productive gold-mining operations in the West. Luckily, a Nevada Senator had a plan to pre-empt it. (Washington, D.C.; 1860s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1908a.origins-of-american-mining-law-559.html)
What riding the transcontinental railroad was like (WPA oral-history interview with Mrs. Hortense Watkins)
May 06, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes - 9.57 MBWhen we get the story of early-day Oregon emigrants' journeys, usually they involve covered wagons. This is a story of a lady who came to Oregon on the newly built transcontinental railway, which she did the same year the connection was finished: 1883. This is WPA writer Sara B. Wrenn's oral history interview with Mrs. Hortense Watkins, a widow and Portland resident, in 1938 -- 50 years after her journey. (For the transcript, see https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001979/ )
Oregon’s first murder defendant saved by wife
May 03, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes - 9.61 MBIt was the first murder trial ever held in the Oregon Territory. The prosecution alleged that Nimrod O’Kelley was a land pirate who had invented an imaginary wife in order to fraudulently claim extra land, and that he had murdered Jeremiah Mahoney to prevent losing it, and to intimidate his other neighbors so that none would challenge him. But when the 'imaginary' wife arrived, everything changed. (Marysville/Corvallis, Benton County; 1850s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.c...
Mysterious skeletons of Oregon history: If only these bones could talk ...
May 02, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes - 9.72 MBSometimes the silent bones of the long dead almost seem to want to tell their stories ... but, of course, they can't.There are a few stories of skeletal remains found in Oregon whose secrets will probably never be known. (Scio, Ochoco National Forest, Peters Creek Sink) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1210c-mysterious-skeletons-of-oregon-history.html)
Nutty 1890s governor gave state two Thanksgivings
May 01, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes - 8.79 MBIn 1893, famously irascible governor Sylvester Pennoyer made a mistake on the date of Turkey Day in a speech. But then, instead of admitting his error, he defiantly doubled down on it. (Salem, Marion County; 1890s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1411b.312.pennoyers-thanksgiving.html)
Prospectors turned their backs on a fortune, twice
April 30, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes - 9.06 MBMiner William Aldred, traveling to a rumored bonanza in Idaho with five dozen other miners, found two gold mines on the way — but couldn't get the other miners to stay with him to work them. Luckily, one of the two mines was still unclaimed on their return. (Prairie City, Grant County; 1860s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1907e.prospectors-turned-backs-on-two-fortunes-558.html)
HEADLINE (WPA oral-history interview with NAMENAMENAME)
April 29, 2024 14:00 - 16 minutes - 15 MBWPA writer William Haight's oral history interview with Miss Etta Crawford, wealthy and cultured member of frontier Oregon's social elite and political activist, recalling her girlhood days in Portland shortly after the Civil War. (For the transcript, see https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001943/)