Latest Roseburg Podcast Episodes
Circuit Preacher Tales III: Longshoreman’s Funeral
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - March 07, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsThe Reverend preached the funeral service to an empty church, while the deceased's friends and colleagues fought in the parking lot over who got to ride in the taxicabs. But the hostilities were forgotten when they arrived at a roadhouse. (Tacoma, Washington Territory; 1880s) (For text and pictur...
Circuit Preacher Stories 2: Shanghaiing up a flock
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - March 06, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsWhen trying to minister to the spiritual needs of a crowd of hard-sinning miners and sailors, it was sometimes necessary to resort to unorthodox tactics — tactics not often seen among men of the cloth in more civilized times. (Old Oregon Territory; 1840s, 1850s) (For text and pictures, see https...
Circuit Preacher Stories 1: The Rev. Wells’ wild ride
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - March 05, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsEagerly, the Reverend leaped into the waiting bathtub, positioned at the top of the stairs in the chilly foyer of the frontier hotel. And then, to his horror, he realized it was sliding toward the top of the staircase on a sheet of ice ... (Weston, Umatilla County; 1850s, 1860s) (For text and pi...
Recollections of an old Oregon hard-rock miner (WPA oral-history interview)
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - March 04, 2024 14:00 - 21 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratings"I was introduced to Hank Simms by the superintendent of the Home (for the Aged) and he took me to his room. At once Hank Simms asked, 'Well, young feller, what do you want — just some straight running off at the mouth or do you want me to go on something special? I am a long distance talker if y...
‘Tillamook Guerillas’ were ready for enemy invasion
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - March 01, 2024 14:00 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsWhen the Oregon National Guard was called up, Oregonians felt vulnerable to Japanese invasion. So they loaded their rifles and possed up ready to give 'em hell! (Tillamook County; 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1802b.tillamook-guerillas-ready-to-fight-off-invasion-4...
When dynamite truck blew up, it looked like nuclear war
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 29, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsA truck driver parked 13,000 pounds of explosives next to the hardware store downtown. That night the hardware store caught fire … and so did the dynamite, in the biggest human-caused disaster in Oregon history. (Roseburg, Douglas County; 1950s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.c...
‘Home for Wayward Girls and Fallen Women’ a bust
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 28, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsWell-meaning church congregations banded together to offer 'wayward girls and fallen women' a place to get away from their profession — but it turned out most of them didn't particularly want to leave it; not yet, at least. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1890s) (For text and pictures, see https://o...
Portland lad grew up to be a founding father of USSR
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 27, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsPortland native Jack Reed was the only American buried in the Kremlin wall; his enthusiasm for the Bolsheviks was cooling toward the end, but after he died they gave him a state funeral and declared him a martyr to the revolution. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1900s, 1910s) (For text and pictures,...
The Furrier's Story: Louis Schumacher, part 2 of 2 parts (WPA oral history interview)
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 26, 2024 14:00 - 18 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsPart 2 of 2 parts: On Jan. 3, 1939, Federal Writers Project worker Andrew Sherbert sat down with a slim, quick-moving gray haired 70-year-old furrier/pelt buyer named Louis Schumacher to talk about Mr. Schumacher's recollections of coming to Portland from Baden, Germany, and establishing a busin...
Massive DC-8 jumbo jet landed at tiny rural airport by mistake
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 23, 2024 14:00 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsTroutdale Airfield is just 10 miles from Portland International — and built to serve Cessnas, not Boeings. But one dark night in 1962, a jumbo-jet pilot got a little confused .... (Troutdale, Multnomah County; 1960s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1802a.massive-jet-lands-a...
Shipwrecked fur traders walked from Oregon Coast to Louisiana
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 22, 2024 14:00 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsWhile they were ashore, their sailing ship sank in a storm, leaving four fur traders alone in a vast wilderness with no prospects for rescue. So they set out for Louisiana – and two years later, they arrived. (Umpqua River, Coos County; 1810s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com...
Czarina shipwreck: A deadly marine concert of timidity and incompetence
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 21, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsThe wreck of the steamship Czarina: A cascade of bad decisions by nearly everyone involved resulted in the worst possible outcome: 23 mariners slowly dying in the surf as friends and family members watched from the beach. (Coos Bay Spit, Coos County; 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://of...
“Camp Castaway” was an inconvenient miracle
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 20, 2024 14:00 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsFeeling lucky to be alive, the soldiers and sailors of the shipwrecked schooner Captain Lincoln got busy salvaging everything off their stranded ship. But then the Army had a problem: How were they going to retrieve it? (Coos Bay Spit, Coos County; 1850s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbe...
The Furrier's Story: Louis Schumacher, part 1 of 2 parts (WPA oral history interview)
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 19, 2024 14:00 - 16 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsOn Jan. 3, 1939, Federal Writers Project worker Andrew Sherbert sat down with a slim, quick-moving gray haired 70-year-old furrier/pelt buyer named Louis Schumacher to talk about Mr. Schumacher's recollections of coming to Portland from Baden, Germany, and establishing a business buying the pelt...
Six iconic food items that were invented in Oregon
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 16, 2024 14:00 - 19 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsAT THE TIME of this writing, the Christmas shopping season is just starting to spool up, and folks are getting ready for some serious holiday eating. Most likely, that festive feasting won’t include many of the things on this list. Although inventors from the Beaver State have had a big impact ...
Little remains of back-woods luxury spa at Wilhoit Springs
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 15, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsDuring the heyday of hydropathy, the remote mountainside resort was Clackamas County’s No. 1 tourist draw; its waters actually had scientifically provable therapeutic value. (Molalla, Clackamas County; 1910s, 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1102a-little-remains-of-rur...
Would Slate's all-metal steam-powered airship have worked?
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 14, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsIf so, the Linn County lad might have revolutionized air travel. But a launch-day disaster ruined his prototype, the Great Depression scared off all his investors, and the Hindenburg disaster ended the era of airship travel. (Linn and Benton county; 1910s, 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https...
Alsea lad became ‘The Nikola Tesla of Oregon’
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 13, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsThomas B. Slate first invented the commercial production process for making dry ice, then took his new-made fortune and used it to re-imagine airship travel in an almost unbelievably “steampunk” way. (Alsea, Benton County; 1900s, 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1602b....
The life, times, and gold mines of Captain W.H. Hembree (WPA oral-history interview)
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 12, 2024 14:00 - 16 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsOn April 28, 1938, Federal Writers Project worker Andrew Sherbert sat down with a stocky, rugged-looking 74-year-old prospector and former riverboat captain named W.H. Hembree to talk about his recollections of life in frontier Oregon for a firefighter, sailor, and gold miner. (For text and pictu...
Was Joe Drake a murderer, or just an innocent patsy?
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 09, 2024 14:00 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsIt's nearly certain that Drake was guilty only of extreme naivete — and his landlord, after murdering a neighbor, knew he could pin the crime on him because Drake was black. (Salem, Marion County; 1880s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1801d.joseph-drake-murderer-or-innocent...
Japanese submarine I-25 blasted its way into Oregon history twice
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 08, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsThe big sub was a key part of Oregon history; it fired on Battery Russell in June 1942, tried to light a forest fire with its on-board airplane that September, and sank several merchant ships. (Offshore; 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1101e-Japanese-submarine-blasted...
Oregon’s first execution still cloaked in mystery
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 07, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsDanford Balch got drunk and shotgunned his new son-in-law on the deck of the Stark Street Ferry. His diary and official records tell part of the story. But the real questions can only be guessed at — and some of the guesses are sinister indeed. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1850s) (For text and pi...
Schooner crew locked in a race with fiery death
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 06, 2024 14:00 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsBelow decks, a chemical fire burned freely through the hold of the Challenger; above deck, her crew worked desperately in a hurricane windstorm to find a port they could put into before the fire broke through the deck. (Columbia River Bar, Clatsop County; 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https:...
The Last Diggin's: Recollections of an old Oregon miner (WPA oral-history interview)
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 05, 2024 14:00 - 17 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsOn Nov. 29, 1938, at the Portland Odd Fellows Home for the Aged, Federal Writers Project worker Walker Winslow sat down with an 86-year-old miner and prospector named Hank Simms to talk about the life of a wandering prospector in the old American West. 'I am a miner, and for 40-50 years I have be...
Davy Crockett in Oregon? Yes, but only in ‘tall tales’
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 02, 2024 14:00 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsIn the tall tales of 1840s almanacs, the “King of the Wild Frontier” had a lively interest in the Beaver State. But he did get a few of his facts wrong! (Statewide; 1840s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1801c.davy-crockett-tall-tales-about-oregon-479.html)
Vanport houses floated like life rafts in catastrophic flood
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - February 01, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsThe shoddily built Portland suburb existed for six years. In that time, it spawned Portland State University and helped bring ethnic diversity to the state. Few people realize how important the place really was. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon...
Mill owner’s fight with city sparked anti-Japanese riot
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 31, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsIt's an event remembered with some shame in Oregon: A group of innocent, terrified men and women found themselves at the mercy of an angry mob, pawns in a power struggle between a mill owner and a group of townspeople. (Toledo, Lincoln County; 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatore...
Skipper’s refusal to leave ship angered rescuers
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 30, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsAt great personal risk, Coast Guardsmen had to rescue the skipper twice, because he insisted on staying aboard the stranded steamship to defend its cargo from marauding salvagers. (Columbia River Bar, Clatsop County; 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1601e.shipwreck-lau...
Recollections of one of Portland's first telephone operators (WPA Federal Writers' Project oral history)
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 29, 2024 14:00 - 16 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsIn March 1938, WPA writer Claire Churchill sat down with Anne Abernethy Starr for an oral-history interview, touching on Abernethy Starr's childhood memories growing up in frontier Portland and working as a draftswoman and as one of Portland's first telephone operators. (Source on Library of Cong...
Copter crash decimated Oregon journalism
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 26, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsPORTLAND, MULTNOMAH COUNTY - It was the first news helicopter in the nation, and it gave the Oregon Journal a huge advantage. But then, one day ... (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1801b.sam-jackson-helicopter-crash-journal-478.html)
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