Offbeat Oregon History podcast
A daily podcast of true Oregon stories from the wilder side of the Beaver State. Tales of heroes and rascals, of shipwrecks and lost gold, of shanghaied sailors and skid-road bordellos and pirates and robbers and buried treasure ... From the archives of the Offbeat ...
A daily podcast of true Oregon stories from the wilder side of the Beaver State. Tales of heroes and rascals, of shipwrecks and lost gold, of shanghaied sailors and skid-road bordellos and pirates and robbers and buried treasure ... From the archives of the Offbeat Oregon History syndicated newspaper column.
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The wreck of the Glenesslin: Insurance fraud, or just drunken incompetence?
Windjammer still holds a world speed record for sailing ships, ...
Windjammer still holds a world speed record for sailing ships, but by the time of her demise, had been losing money for years; the age of steam had made her obsolete. So when she sailed onto the rocks, many people smelled a rat.
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Ashland's Shakespeare festival won title match with boxing event
The festival's 1935 debut went head to head with a ...
The festival's 1935 debut went head to head with a festival of fistfights, and to the astonishment of many city leaders, the Shakespeare plays kayoed the boxing in the first round.
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“Jackson County Rebellion” grew out of newspapers’ fight
An autocratic populist from southern California, arriving in Medford in ...
An autocratic populist from southern California, arriving in Medford in a flashy Cadillac, managed to position himself as a leader of the poor and disenfranchised. The results would rock the county, and the state, to the core.
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Gold-field bandits' stolen loot still hasn't been found
The Triskett Gang underestimated the citizens of Sailors' Diggins, which ...
The Triskett Gang underestimated the citizens of Sailors' Diggins, which became a fatal error when they went on a shooting spree downtown. But the $75,000 they stole has never been recovered.
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Mob racketeers, corrupt union men battled over pinball
Many people today don't realize that in the 1950s, pinball ...
Many people today don't realize that in the 1950s, pinball had a bad reputation as a gambler's game and was as illegal as one-armed bandits. In Portland, shady underworld characters supplied Oregonians with plenty of both.
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Albany’s E.F. Lee was Oregon’s first fake-viagra scammer
Local swindler's anti-impotence scam brought him and his company to ...
Local swindler's anti-impotence scam brought him and his company to national attention; but it wasn't until he added a quack birth-control remedy to his line that he was busted and jailed for his fraud.
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Tired of watching mariners die, lighthouse keeper started a rescue service
After finding a battered lifeboat washed up on shore from ...
After finding a battered lifeboat washed up on shore from a fatal shipwreck, Joel Munson made it his life's mission to use it to start a life-saving service. Today, his creation soldiers on, as part of the U.S. Coast Guard.
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Did Sir Francis Drake spend a summer in Whale Cove?
Some historians think famous explorer's "Nova Albion," in which the ...
Some historians think famous explorer's "Nova Albion," in which the Golden Hind stopped for repairs and provisions in 1579, is in Oregon, not northern California.
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Frontier Oregon swindlers: The traveling medicine shows
The basic idea: Mix a few dramatic ingredients like whiskey, ...
The basic idea: Mix a few dramatic ingredients like whiskey, red pepper and laudanum, stick a label on it; hawk it on streetcorners as a universal medicine; and leave town before the suckers can get wise.
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Legendary Oregon wrestler got pinned by a heavyweight real-estate dream
Olympic gold medalist and OSU legend Robin Reed might have ...
Olympic gold medalist and OSU legend Robin Reed might have been the best wrestler of all time; throughout his 20-plus-year career he was never once pinned. But his plan for the "Delake Rod and Gun Club" was more than he could pull off.
