Offbeat Oregon History podcast

Offbeat Oregon History podcast

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 column. Source citations are included with the text version on the Web site at https://offbeatoregon.com.

Episodes

Before news “crusade,” milk was killing babies

April 24, 2026 • 7 mins
State regulators didn't care, so neither did some dairy farmers, who left dead cows to rot among their dairy herds and brought milk to market in the same cans they used to slop the hogs; Portland led the nation in baby deaths as a result. (Portland, Multnomah and Columbia county; 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1208b-bad-milk-was-killing-babies-in-portland.html)
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Quest for lost gold mine led to 12,000-acre jewel

April 23, 2026 • 10 mins
Searching for a fabulous source of gold formerly belonging to a friend who'd mysteriously disappeared, miners stumbled across Crater Lake. They never found the gold, though; could it be that it's still out there somewhere? (Yreka, Siskiyou County (Calif.); 1850s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1207b-crater-lake-discovered-by-legendary-gold-mine-seekers.html)
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Did L. Ron Hubbard battle Japanese subs off Astoria?

April 22, 2026 • 10 mins
Pulp writer and religious figure L. Ron Hubbard figures prominently in the most spectacular story of action against “Japanese submarines” in Oregon waters. It's called, with tongue firmly in cheek, the “Battle of Cape Lookout.” (Off Cannon Beach, Clatsop County; 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1407a.sunken-submarine-rumors.html)
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‘Desperado’ became P-town’s first police chief

April 21, 2026 • 9 mins
James Lappeus came to Portland from the gold fields of California, where he was a gambler, saloonkeeper and general mining-town rowdy. His career as a cop was dogged by rumors he'd offered to spring a murderer for a $1,000 bribe. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1850s, 1860s, 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1207a-james-lappeus-crooked-gambler-police-chief-in-portland.html)
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Busting out of the joint was job for a safecracker

April 20, 2026 • 7 mins
Of all the prisoners who tried to escape from Oregon's state prison, the “yeggs” were most successful — if “successful” is the right word. Their schemes for leaving the jailhouse behind included a tunneling scheme right out of “The Shawshank Redemption.” (Salem, Marion County; 1890s, 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1207d-safecrackers-were-good-at-jailbreaks.html)
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Rusty derelict turned out to be Liberty Ship lifeboat

April 17, 2026 • 7 mins
What looked like a rotting-away hunk of scrap steel was a rare artifact of Portland's World War II shipbuilding industry — but the discovery was made just a few days too late. (Zigzag, Columbia County; 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1207e-rusty-lifeboat-turned-out-to-be-relic-of-second-world-war.html)
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How Oregon almost lost public access to beaches

April 16, 2026 • 8 mins
After a beachfront landowner discovered a loophole in the law and fenced off “his” beach, other oceanfront property owners were eager to follow suit. Governor Tom McCall was determined to stop them, and this is how he did it. (Cannon Beach, Clatsop County; 1960s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1206a-how-tom-mccall-saved-public-beaches.html)
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Childhood tree-planting memories for thousands

April 15, 2026 • 9 mins
For 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 and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1408b.schoolkids-replant-tillamook.html)
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Tillamook Burn ‘blew up’ with shocking speed

April 14, 2026 • 9 mins
Quick 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://offbeatoregon.com/1408a.tillamook-burn-pt2-the-legacy.html)
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Tillamook Burn sprang from loggers’ bad gamble

April 13, 2026 • 8 mins
A 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-outbreak.html)
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Bunco Kelley, Coyote of P-town waterfront legend

April 10, 2026 • 10 mins
Is there any truth to the stories of shanghaiings of the cigar-store Indian and of the dozens of dead guys found in the basement of the funeral parlor next door to the “Snug Harbor Saloon”? Well ... maybe. But then again ... yeah, no. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1890s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1407c.bunco-kelley-part2-the-myths.html)
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Oregon’s most notorious shanghaier: Bunco Kelley

April 9, 2026 • 9 mins
He was Portland's most notorious bad guy, with his fingers in everything from shanghaiing sailors to smuggling opium. But ironically, when he was finally sent to prison, it was for a murder he clearly didn't commit. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1890s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1407b.bunco-kelley-part1-the-facts.html)
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Legendary ‘Chief Bigfoot’ elusive as, well, Bigfoot

April 8, 2026 • 9 mins
1860s Bannock leader disappeared as mysteriously as he appeared, leaving behind nothing but frontier folklore and a trail of 17-inch-long moccasin prints; a probably-untrue rumor claims Nampa, Idaho, was named after him. (Malheur County; 1850s, 1860s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1409b.304.chief-bigfoot-legend.html)
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In 1880s, salmon were the “most dangerous catch”

April 7, 2026 • 11 mins
Fishermen working in heavy 24-foot boats at the mouth of the Columbia kept getting sucked out onto the bar and drowning in its massive breakers. Their odds of not surviving a season were as high as 1 in 15. (Astoria, Clatsop County; 1880s, 1890s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1206d-most-dangerous-catch-salmon-on-columbia-river-bar.html)
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Steamer wrecked by future Costa Rica admiral

April 6, 2026 • 9 mins
Ashamed to show his face in Astoria after causing the loss of the biggest passenger liner on the West Coast, Thomas Doig slunk away to South America and remade himself as a military man. (Columbia River Bar, Clatsop County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1408c.300.great-republic-wreck.html)
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Frankie Baker found a home, and some peace, in Oregon

April 3, 2026 • 11 mins
Sometime in 1915, a 40-year-old Black woman named Frankie Baker stepped off the train at Portland’s Union Station. She had come to stay; Oregon would be her home for the rest of her life. At that time, Portland had a a reputation as a good place to hide out when you were on the lam. It was far off the beaten path; but the town had all the cultural perquisites of civilization, or most of them anyway. Plus, the people of Oregon had ...
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‘Johnny’s’ Frankie lived in Portland, hiding from "her song"

April 2, 2026 • 9 mins
THE STORY TOLD in “Frankie and Johnny” is very well known — the song has been covered by at least 250 recording artists over the last 120 years. Mae West made it her theme song. Elvis Presley’s recording earned him a gold record. Originally a ragtime piece, it’s been adopted into jazz (Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck …), country (Johnny Cash, Doc Watson, Jimmie Rogers …), blues (Leadbelly, Mississippi John Hurt, Mississ...
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Charming gentleman by day, robber-poet by night

April 1, 2026 • 9 mins
Charles “Black Bart” Bolton's neighbors in San Francisco thought his money came from ownership in gold mines. It turned out it came from furtive excursions northward to rob stagecoaches in Oregon and northern California. (Siskiyou Pass, Jackson County; 1880s, 1890s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1401d.black-bart-gentleman-stage-robber-poet.html)
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Rosecrans rescue one of Coast Guard’s finest hours

March 31, 2026 • 10 mins
Two motor lifeboat crews went out on the bar to save three surviving sailors. Both boats went to the bottom of the sea — but not a man was lost on either crew, and all the survivors were rescued. (Columbia River Bar, Clatsop County; 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1506d.CursedShips-RosecransRescue.html)
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Cursed or not, Rosecrans was one unlucky ship

March 30, 2026 • 10 mins
The big oil tanker had weathered two major catastrophes in the previous year — a stranding and a colossal fire. But for 33 doomed crew members, the third time would be the charm — or, rather, the hex. (Columbia River Bar, Clatsop County; 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1506c.cursed-ships-rosecrans-344.html)
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