Offbeat Oregon History podcast
The Offbeat Oregon History Podcast is a daily service from the Offbeat Oregon History newspaper column. Each weekday morning, a strange-but-true story from Oregon's history from the archives of the column is uploaded. An exploding whale, a few 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. Source citations are included with the text version on the Web site at https://offbeatoregon.com.
- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 11 minutes
- Episodes
- 195
- Years Active
- 2025
Oregon was scene of first recorded Soapy Smith con
The most famous con artist of the Old West started in Portland, then traveled throughout the state working the “marks” with his signature swindle. Fifteen years later, an Oregonian shot him in a gun …
00:11:33 |
Thu 18 Sep 2025
Oregon gold-country legend: The solid-gold snuff can
Is there anything to the story of the Native American man who came out of the woods every few years with a snuff can full of gold dust? Maybe. (McKenzie River valley; 1920s, 1930s) (For text and pic…
00:05:27 |
Wed 17 Sep 2025
Bungled robbery-murder was solved ‘CSI’-style
College professor's forensic investigation fingered the DeAutremont Brothers in the brutal robbery; after a years-long manhunt, and more than 2 million “wanted” posters, they were caught. But we stil…
00:08:52 |
Tue 16 Sep 2025
‘Last great train robbery’ was brutal, clumsy fiasco (part 1 of 2)
After several other attempts to get into the crime business didn't work out for them, the DeAutremont brothers came up with a plan to rob a train at the summit of the Siskiyous. It did not go well — …
00:10:20 |
Mon 15 Sep 2025
Black sheep of the Union Army was Oregon’s last Civil War veteran
Lebanon man lived a quiet, respectable life after the Civil War, but back in his youth he was a member of Olney's Detachment of the Oregon Cavalry — a Union Army outfit nicknamed “Olney's Forty Thiev…
00:09:12 |
Fri 12 Sep 2025
Dory fisherman rescues stranded sailors — from Coast Guard boat
The conditions were too rough even for the legendary Coast Guard 36-foot motor lifeboat to make it through the breakers, so a fisherman brought them ashore two by two in his rowboat. (Port Orford, Cu…
00:07:30 |
Thu 11 Sep 2025
The game of Faro was a crooked gambler’s dream
Frontier Oregon's favorite game of chance was a “banking” game that's little played today. That's because the only way to make money as a faro banker is to cheat ... and cheat they did. (Portland, Mu…
00:09:30 |
Wed 10 Sep 2025
Pirate, jailbird, hustler, tycoon: 'Colonel' T. Edgenton Hogg
Desperate for some ready cash after his steamer wrecked on the beach, the would-be magnate hastily built a “railroad to nowhere” over Santiam Pass in an attempt to swindle the federal government. It …
00:10:13 |
Tue 09 Sep 2025
Giant mud puddles were once Lake Chewacan, a great inland sea
Summer Lake, Abert Lake and Goose Lake were once all part of a vast network of seas surrounded by lush vegetation. In dry years they can evaporate completely — which led to some confusion on the Appl…
00:08:27 |
Mon 08 Sep 2025
The rise and fall of ‘king of Portland saloonkeepers’
... and was now verbally abusing, and physically beating, his wife.
Complicating the situation even further was the fact that the downstairs neighbor was Sauvie’s landlord. He was renting an upstai…
00:13:59 |
Fri 05 Sep 2025
Goofy, Bluto, Bozo were all Oregon’s ‘Pinto’ Colvig
One of the 20th Century’s most influential show-biz men, the Jacksonville native was a Beaver who made it big; he worked on Disney projects and Popeye cartoons and delighted kids as the first Bozo th…
00:09:33 |
Thu 04 Sep 2025
Frontier journalists settled differences with gunfight
The nationally notorious “Oregon Style” of newspapering involved vicious personal attacks and a take-no-prisoners style of cutting invective; but it was ink being spilled, not blood. That is, until o…
00:09:09 |
Wed 03 Sep 2025
“Voice of Looney Toons” was the terror of his Portland high school
His teachers may not have appreciated Mel Blanc's humor and talents, but Portland radio listeners sure did — and later, so did generations of Bugs Bunny fans. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1910s, 1920…
00:08:24 |
Tue 02 Sep 2025
The Port Orford Meteorite: Was it all a big hoax?
If it's true, the 11-ton space rock is still out there — and worth over $300 million. But the guy who says he found it was in financial trouble, and many geologists today suspect he made the whole th…
00:08:47 |
Mon 01 Sep 2025
Finn on KPNW's Wake Up Call: Minor political hack became opium king of West Coast
Topic: James Lotan's path from political fixer, to state party president, to drug-smuggling kingpin. (For the full story, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2408a-1202d.james-lotan-opium-king-661.161.htm…
00:20:16 |
Sun 31 Aug 2025
Missing gold suggests something sinister in shipwreck mystery
There were, so far as we know, no survivors. But when the upside-down hulk drifted ashore, it was 200 miles off course — and there was no sign of the 40-pound keg of gold it had been carrying. What h…
00:07:58 |
Fri 29 Aug 2025
“Shorty” Davis may be Oregon’s oldest cold case
Shorty Davis was a popular sheepman who one day in 1900 disappeared ... and no one has ever seen a sign of him since. Virtually everyone suspects foul play. (Prineville, Crook County; 1900s) (For tex…
00:09:54 |
Thu 28 Aug 2025
Filming of “worst Western ever” was a real spectacle
It was no 'Heaven's Gate' -- 'The Way West' was more like the 'Ishtar' of the late 1960s. It was spectacularly and expensively shot on location in Oregon, but plans to celebrate its release here foun…
00:08:51 |
Wed 27 Aug 2025
Boys’ summertime shipwreck adventure couldn’t happen today
They pedaled their bicycles from Portland to Astoria, snuck aboard a wrecked ocean liner, and spent the night marooned on board, with breakers crashing all around them. (Peacock Spit, Pacific County …
00:10:12 |
Tue 26 Aug 2025
First Ashland Shakespeare Festival kayoed competing boxing event
The city business leaders hoped the Shakespeare Festival would do OK, but just in case it tanked, they insisted that it share the stage with a series of prizefights. The boxing matches bombed badly; …
00:09:02 |
Mon 25 Aug 2025
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