Latest Roseburg Podcast Episodes
Oregon back country is rich in legends of buried treasure
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 25, 2024 14:00 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsStories of lost loot and buried booty have kept treasure hunters busy digging for gold in hidden corners of Oregon for the past 150 years. (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1101c-oregon-backcountry-rich-in-legends-of-buried-treasure.html)
Radical Wobblies found support among loggers
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 24, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsIndustrial Workers of the World union grew strong in the woods just before the First World War broke out — and the U.S. Army had to teach soldiers to cut timber to get the industry moving again. (Lumber camps, 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1301d-wobblies-come-to-ore...
Buying a B-17 for his gas station was a crazy adventure
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 23, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsBefore he made it back, Art Lacey had survived a plane crash, bribed a fire department with illegal whiskey, kited a big check and made bitter enemies in Portland City Hall. But hey, all's well that ends well, right? (Milwaukie, Clackamas County; 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeat...
Autobiography of an Oregon Trail pioneer (Part 3 of 3)
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 22, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsIn 1847, while a lad of 15, Mr. Brown crossed the great prairies and mountains of the Oregon Trail in a wagon train with his father, grandfather, and sundry other relatives. Brown’s grandfather kept a store back East in Illinois, and, being unable to liquidate it on congenial terms, packed all th...
‘Automo-bubble’ a part of Deschutes railroad war
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 19, 2024 14:00 - 16 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsSOMETIME IN THE late spring of 1909, at the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company’s ticket booth in Portland, a 19-year-old man named Jim Morrell laid down his last $2 for a ticket on the Bailey Gatzert, the famous Columbia River sternwheeler. Destination: The Dalles. Morrell was from Colorado o...
Shipwreck of Brother Jonathan is ground zero in treasure squabble
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 18, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsSidewheel steamer’s sinking was a major maritime disaster for Oregon; treasure hunters found the gold-laden wreck in 1993, touching off a big, undignified catfight with the state of California over salvage rights. (Offshore, Curry County; 1860s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.c...
SPADs, Sopwith Camels made with Oregon spruce
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 17, 2024 14:00 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsThe famous First World War aircraft were made of spruce, and one of the most important sources of the strategic wood for the Allies was the northern Oregon coast. (Toledo, Lincoln County; 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1301c-great-war-planes-made-of-oregon-spruce.html)
Fossil hunters' ‘Bone Wars’ came to Oregon, but just barely
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 16, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsIt's probably just as well that no actual dinosaur bones were found here; the spiteful, unprofessional “cowboy paleontology” practiced by O.C. Marsh and E.D. Cope left Oregon's pioneer scientists profoundly unimpressed as it was. (John Day Fossil Beds, Wheeler and Grant county; 1870s) (For text ...
Autobiography of an Oregon Trail pioneer (Part 2 of 3)
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 15, 2024 14:00 - 20 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsIn 1847, while a lad of 15, Mr. Brown crossed the great prairies and mountains of the Oregon Trail in a wagon train with his father, grandfather, and sundry other relatives. Brown’s grandfather kept a store back East in Illinois, and, being unable to liquidate it on congenial terms, packed all th...
State government was ‘decapitated’ by crash
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 12, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsWhen it came out just after the war, the Beechcraft Bonanza was the hottest private plane in the sky — a sleek, speedy, fuel-efficient hot rod. But it was very easy for a novice to get in deadly trouble flying one. (Rural south Lake County; 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon...
“Wonder Dog’s” 2,500-mile odyssey put Silverton on the map
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 11, 2024 14:00 - 7 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsLost in Illinois, the affable collie crossed the Rocky Mountains on foot in the dead of winter, making friends along the way and causing a sensation on his arrival. (Silverton, Marion County; 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1101a-bobbie-the-wonder-dog-put-silverton-on...
Gun-toting ‘Wildcat’ was nation’s first ‘shock jock’
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 10, 2024 14:00 - 11 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsRobert Gordon Duncan was the first radio broadcaster ever to be sent to prison for cursing on the air. For the first six months of 1930, the entire city was riveted to his radio show, wondering who he'd slander next. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeato...
Portland ‘jitney wars’ were monopoly vs. small-biz
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 09, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsRegular motorists would swing by streetcar stops and offer to take passengers faster and in greater comfort for the same nickel. But the competition enraged the powerful plutocrats who owned the streetcar company. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoreg...
Autobiography of an Oregon Trail pioneer (Part 1 of 3)
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 08, 2024 14:00 - 17 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsOn today’s Primary Source Monday offering, we have the first of a three-part series, which consists of most of the autobiography of J. Henry Brown. In 1847, while a lad of 15, Mr. Brown crossed the great prairies and mountains of the Oregon Trail in a wagon train with his father, grandfather, and...
Atlantis in Oregon: The underwater lost cities
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 05, 2024 14:00 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsThe rising waters of lakes and reservoirs have submerged many budding Oregon metropolises over the years, from tiny one-horse towns to an entire Native American homeland. (Klamath, Baker, Lane, Wasco County) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1406e.lost-cities-oregon-atlantis.h...
Japanese shipwrecks on coast predate Columbus
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 04, 2024 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsThe case of John Ottoson (ne Otokichi) in 1832 illustrates what can happen: Blown off to sea by a gale, he and his comrades rode the Kuroshio Current to Washington State — much to the astonishment of Dr. John McLoughlin. (Oregon Coast; 1830s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/...
Mislabeled wood alcohol killed 28 Portland hobos
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 03, 2024 14:00 - 10 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsThe alcoholic derelicts of on Burnside Street knew they could count on denatured alcohol for a cheap-but-nasty buzz; it might make them sick, but it wouldn't kill them. But then, one day, it did. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1404c.poiso...
Story of sinister video game is urban legend
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 02, 2024 14:00 - 6 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsThe darksomely sinister story of the old console game, with its attendant Men In Black and swarms of zombie children, is a fun story to look back on; but its odds of being true are up there with tales of Bigfoot. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1980s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatorego...
Sara B. Wrenn interviews Bert Mendenhall about old Portland, and his father's experiences as an Oregon Trail pioneer
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - January 01, 2024 14:00 - 11 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsOn May 15, 1937, WPA writer Sara B. Wrenn sat down with Bert Mendenhall for an oral-history interview, touching on Mendenhall's childhood memories in 1880s Portland as well as the stories told by his father, Rush Mendenhall, who crossed the continent on the Oregon Trail in 1847. (Source on Librar...
Did ‘Vortex I’ prevent riots in downtown Portland?
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - December 29, 2023 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsOn that tense late-August weekend, tens of thousands of young people enjoyed themselves at McIver Park, while the much-dreaded riots failed to materialize. Was there a connection? Many voters thought so. (McIver Park, Clackamas County; 1970s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/...
McCall expected ‘Vortex I’ to cost him re-election
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - December 28, 2023 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsWhen McCall green-lighted the plan to distract potential street rioters with a week-long music festival, he fully expected to lose his job for it — whether it worked or not. (Salem, Marion County; 1970s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1406b.290.vortex-part2-the-family.html)
Riot at PSU set the stage for ‘Governor’s Pot Party’
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - December 27, 2023 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsTo Governor Tom McCall, it looked like Portland was about to explode, and there was nothing he could do to prevent it ... until two long-haired young people came to his chief of staff with a very unusual plan. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1970s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.c...
NASA’s ‘Moon Trees’ have roots in Oregon forest fire
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - December 26, 2023 14:00 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsAstronaut Stuart Roosa had a special relationship with the U.S. Forest Service, and when it was his turn to go to the moon, he proposed a science experiment. You can see the results towering over Peavy Hall at Oregon State University today. (Cape Canaveral, Florida; 1970s) (For text and pictures,...
Ardyth Kennely interviews Newt McDaniel about the ghost town of Ellendale (WPA oral history)
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - December 25, 2023 14:00 - 7 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsIn late 1937 or early 1938, writer Ardyth Gibbs (known to literary history today as Ardyth Kennely, author of several bestsellers in the 1950s) sat down with pioneer Newton McDaniel to talk about some early Willamette Valley history concerning the ghost town of Ellendale, in Polk County. (https:/...
Childhood tree-planting memories for thousands
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - December 22, 2023 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsFor decades after the Tillamook Burn, classes of schoolchildren were bused out to help replant. Today, thousands of Oregonians, on trips to the beach, can point to a thriving patch of forest and say, “We planted those trees.” (Tillamook, Yamhill, Washington county; 1950s, 1960s, 1970s) (For text ...
Tillamook Burn ‘blew up’ with shocking speed
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - December 21, 2023 14:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsQuick action by state forester Lynn Cronemiller prevented the devastating forest fire from claiming hundreds of lives when a furnace-stoking wind blew in from Eastern Oregon, flogging the fire toward the sea. (Washington, Yamhill, Tillamook County; 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbe...
Tillamook Burn sprang from loggers’ bad gamble
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - December 20, 2023 14:00 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsA hard-pressed crew tried to snake just a few more logs out before quitting for the day, hoping nothing would go wrong in the tinder-dry forest. Unfortunately, something did. (Forest Grove, Washington County; 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1407d.tillamook-burn-1933-o...
War-games campaign blanketed Central Oregon
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - December 19, 2023 14:00 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsTens of thousands of U.S. soldiers, shipped to the Beaver State for training, learned combat lessons that would save their lives and help them win the Second World War during the huge campaign simulation known as the Oregon Maneuver. (Statewide; 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeato...
Reminiscences of Mrs. E.W. Wilson
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - December 18, 2023 14:00 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsIn 1851, before Oregon was a state, a young schoolteacher named Elizabeth Millar stepped off a sternwheeler in Portland for the first time. These are her memories of that time, as recounted to her daughter, Mrs. J.T. Peters, 45 years later. In those 45 years, Miss Millar (now Mrs. Wilson) went on...
Oregon’s ‘tiger king’ became Idaho’s problem
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - December 15, 2023 14:00 - 21 minutes ★★★★★ - 160 ratingsON THE EVENING of Sept. 28, 1995, Woney and Laurie Peters, of Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, were driving back to their home behind the local elementary school when they noticed something wasn’t right. The first thing they noticed was the horses. They were confined in a corral in front of the house, n...
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