Offbeat Oregon History podcast

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 still don't know the full story. (Siskiyou Pass, Jackson County; 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1701b.part2-deautremont-train-rob-manhunt-425.html)

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 — for anyone involved. (Siskiyou Pass, Jackson County; 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1701a.part1-deautremont-train-rob-robbery-424.html)

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 Thieves.” (Lebanon, Linn County; 1860s, 1940s, 1950s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1111c-black-sheep-of-union-army-last-oregon-vet.html)

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, Curry County; 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1112d-dory-fisherman-rescues-shipwrecked-sailors.html)

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, Multnomah County; 1880s, 1890s, 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1312c-faro-crooked-gamblers-dream-game.html)

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 probably would have worked, but ... (Newport, Lincoln County; 1880s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1703a.hogg-railroad-yaquina-433.html)

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 Applegate Trail one year. (Lake County) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1701c.alkali-abert-goose-lakes-426.html)

LATE ONE SPRING evening in 1917, a man named A.L. Sauvie was trying to sleep, and not having much success. The problem was his downstairs neighbor, who had gotten roaring drunk 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 upstairs room in the Clackamas Tavern, just outside Oregon City. The Clackamas claimed to specialize in chicken dinners, but its real claim to secretive fame was as a speakeasy. Prohibition had started early in Oregon. Also, the wife-beating owner of the Clackamas was about as close to royalty as old Portland's liquor industry had. His name was August Erickson — the former owner of the legendary Erickson's Saloon, on Burnside downtown. (Portland, Multnomah and Clackamas county; 1880s, 1890s, 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2506b.august-erickson-cautionary-tale-701.520.html)

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 the Clown. (Jacksonville, Jackson County; 1900s, 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1310b-pinto-colvig-pioneer-animator-showbiz-legend.html)

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 one day in downtown Roseburg ... (Roseburg, Douglas County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1306e-bud-thompson-gunfighting-newsman.html)

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, 1920s, 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1112c-voice-of-looney-toons-mel-blanc.html)

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 thing up. (Port Orford, Curry County; 1860s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1112b-port-orford-meteorite-hoax-or-is-it-real.html)

A recording of an on-air conversation with Bill Lundun and Gerry Snyder of the Wake Up Call on Eugene's KPNW Radio AM 1120. 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.html)

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 happened? Nobody knows. (Columbia River Bar, Clatsop County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1112a-missing-gold-makes-mystery-shipwreck-sinister.html)

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 text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1901b.shorty-davis-coldest-cold-case-mystery-530.html)

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 foundered in a tidal wave of scathing reviews. (Lane, Deschutes and Lake counties; 1966) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1901a.way-west-movie-spectacular-flop-529.html)

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 (Wash.); 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1812d.admiral-benson-shipwreck-summer-vacation.html)

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; luckily, the Shakespeare plays did not. (Ashland, Josephine County; 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1704a.shakespeare-festival-vs-boxing.html)

Among musicians and fans of old-time string-band music, Benjamin Franklin Jarrell is basically royalty. As a member of one of the most influential bands from the golden age of old-time music — DaCosta Woltz's Southern Broadcasters — old Ben helped preserve that classic Appalachian-mountain style of fiddle-and-banjo string bands. His son, Thomas Jefferson “Tommy” Jarrell, is maybe the most influential old-time fiddle player even today, 40 years after his death. In Oregon, though, in the years of Ben's youth, he was a different kind of royalty. The newspapers called him “The King of the Moonshiners.” And by all accounts, anyone lucky enough to acquire a quart or two of his product had to agree that the title was his.... (Umatilla and Clatsop county; 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2506a.ben-jarrell-king-of-moonshiners-700.519.html)

For more than 40 years, amateurs and pros alike have put forward dozens of theories, many quite plausible and backed with some evidence. But the story seems destined to remain a delicious historical mystery. (Statewide; 1970s, 1980s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1306d-db-cooper-part4-the-theories.html)

The hunt for the man who called himself Dan Cooper started just hours after he disappeared into the night sky with a bag of $20 bills tied to his waist. Did he get away? Did anyone find him? The search continues to this day. (Part 3 of 4 parts) (Portland, Multnomah County; 1970s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1306c-db-cooper-part-3-the-hunt.html)

After demanding four parachutes and a knapsack of $20 bills, the legendary anonymous skyjacker disappeared into the night sky over southwest Washington with $200,000 — touching off a massive manhunt. (Part 2 of 4 parts) (Columbia River, Multnomah County; 1970s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1306b-db-cooper-part-2-the-getaway.html)

History's only unsolved hijacking drama started at Portland International Airport when a nondescript man calling himself 'Dan Cooper' stepped aboard a Boeing 727 bound for Seattle. (Part 1 of a 4-part series) (Portland, Multnomah County; 1970s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1306a-db-cooper-part-1-the-skyjacking.html)

A recording of an on-air conversation with Bill Lundun and Gerry Snyder of the Wake Up Call on Eugene's KPNW Radio AM 1120. Topic: The wonderful tall tales of Hathaway Jones, the legendary Rogue River Wilderness mailman who almost everyone agrees was Oregon's all-time greatest liar/storytller! (For the full story, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2406b.hathaway-jones-countrys-biggest-liar.html)

Ame died in 1874, more than 10 years after President Abraham Lincoln set her free. So, why does her gravestone still identify her as a slave? We'll probably never know. (Corvallis, Benton County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1110c-civil-war-didnt-end-slavery-for-oregon-woman-named-ame.html)

When the mercury dropped below 20 degrees for six weeks, a six-inch layer of ice formed on many Willamette Valley lakes — and locals took up ice skating. And five years earlier, it got so cold, a newly built steamship actually cracked in half. (Willamette Valley; 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1705c.ice-skating-cottage-grove-lake-444.html)

Young cowboy David Tucker wanted a share of the loot so he could marry his sweetheart; after he got out of prison, he worked for decades to earn back the trust of both her and their community. (Joseph, Wallowa County; 1890s, 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1305d-former-bank-robber-named-vp-of-bank-he-robbed.html)

In the mid-1870s, a fast-talking East Coast hustler teamed up with a famous half-Native Indian scout to cash in on his fame with a line of dodgy faux-Indian patent remedies — and the Oregon Indian Medicine Co. was born. (Warm Springs Indian Reservation; 1880s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1812c.ka-ton-ka-donald-mckay-warm-springs-indian-medicine.html)

Forest Grove drugstore responded to city's ban on recreational alcohol by adopting the 'marijuana dispensary' model for medicinal booze, and opening a blind pig in the back. The city fathers were not amused, but when they tried to crack down, things did not go as they'd planned ... (Forest Grove, Washington County; 180s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1812b.drugstore-saloon-fight-forest-grove.html)

BY EARLY 1941, the U.S. Army knew it was about to get sucked into at least one of the wars that were already raging around the world. The Selective Service and Training Act had passed the previous fall, and already young American men were being drafted into the Army, swelling its ranks with green recruits. Sooner or not much later they'd be in combat, fighting for their lives. There was no time to be lost — those combat noobs had to be trained and hardened and prepared so that they would have as good a chance as possible when thrown into the fight. With that in mind, the Army started looking for suitable locations for a combat-training campus between Portland and San Francisco on the West Coast. It would need to be about 65,000 acres and, in addition to the usual building sites and gunnery ranges, it would have to include geography similar to the sites where the fighting was expected to happen: rolling hills, steep slopes, swampy terrain, thick forests, and something approximating jungle foliage. Moving very fast — after all, new conscripts were coming in all the time — the Army settled on two prospective sites: one near Eugene, and one just north of Corvallis. The Corvallis site won the toss — there were fewer residents to be displaced, and the railroad and highway infrastructure was more developed. That was in June 1941. By the end of that year, the funds were allocated and the plans drawn up, and nine months later Oregon's second largest city had spring into being out of the swampy ground. (Camp Adair, Benton County; 1940s, 1950s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2505b1004d.camp-adair-699.071.html)

Back when the Mazama Club formed, with membership open only to those who had climbed old Wy'East, standing on top of the mountain meant more than it does today. Just 35 years earlier, fire had been belching out of it. (Wy'East, Hood River and Clackamas County) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1705b.mount-hood-active-volcano-443.html)

At the scene of a notorious double-murder of young lovers Larry Peyton and Beverly Allan, police paid little attention to Edward W. Edwards and soon eliminated him as a suspect. But if they'd dug a little bit deeper ... (Portland, Multnomah County; 1950s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1305a-peyton-allan-murders-manwiththehook.html)

Twenty years after he tried to light the surrounding forests on fire, Japanese pilot Nobuo Fujita returned to Brookings as an honored guest and presented the town with his family's Samurai sword. (Brookings, Curry County; 1960s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1305c-japanese-pilot-fujita-friendship-with-brookings.html)

THERE WAS NO reason why the U.S. Marshal should spend the night on board the cramped, smelly little freight schooner he was in charge of. After all, the ship was anchored in a semi-civilized town — Steilacoom, near Tacoma in the Washington territory — and there were several decent hotels there. The next day he'd have a few hours' cruise to Seattle, where the ship would be sold to pay the debts of its owner, Captain James “Jemmy” Jones — who was, by a happy coincidence, locked up in a jailhouse over 100 miles away. Or so he thought. Actually he was much closer. In fact, as the marshal stepped off the deck of the little freighter and walked off toward his comfy hotel bed, there is a pretty good chance Jemmy Jones actually waved a cheerful goodbye to him as he left. THE WHOLE SITUATION stemmed from a near-death experience Jemmy and his crew had had the previous year, while crossing over the dreaded Columbia River Bar in his ship.... (Columbia River Bar, Clatsop County; 1860s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2503e1110b.jemmy-jones-rascally-captain-695.143.html)

After World War II started, submariner and pilot Nobuo Fujita hatched an idea: Use his tiny, rickety submarine-launched seaplane to attack an enemy 5,000 miles away from the nearest aircraft carrier. (Brookings, Curry County; 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1305b-fujita-bombs-oregon.html)

A recording of a June 2024 on-air conversation with Bill Lundun and Gerry Snyder of the Wake Up Call on Eugene's KPNW Radio AM 1120. Topic: 'Bobbie the Wonder Dog's' 2,500-mile odyssey. Lost 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 upon his arrival home again. (For the full story, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2406a-1101a.silverton-bobbie-the-wonder-dog-104.652.html)

“Uncle Joab” was the most famous preacher in the West for a reason ... and that reason was pretty much exactly why the pioneer lawmakers found him to be such a lousy fit for the job of Chaplain of the Legislature. Suddenly they were desperate to get rid of him. But, they'd hired him before his salary was in the treasury.... (Salem, Marion County; 1850s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1901d.uncle-joab-powell-political-firsts-2of2.html)

When the Legislature of the new state of Oregon started looking for someone to serve as the state's first Chaplain of the Legislature, Uncle Joab's name naturally came readily to mind. But it wouldn't be long before they wished they'd never even heard of this plain-speaking, long-preaching circuit rider.... (Near Jefferson, Marion County; 1850s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1901c.uncle-joab-powell-part1.html)

After out-of-state interests overplayed their hand and showed how little power locals had in their own state, Populists and renegade Republicans got together to do something about it. The result: The initiative-petition system. (Salem, Marion County; 1890s, 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1612d.oregon-system-initiative-referendum-423.html)

Dr. E.R. Huckleberry came to Tillamook County in 1923, fresh from medical school; by the time he retired, in the 1960s, he could safely say the career he'd chosen had been neither easy nor safe ... but he wouldn't have traded it for anything. (Garibaldi, Tillamook County; 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1903a.country-doctors-huckleberry-537.html)

JUST BEFORE SUNSET on the evening of April 12, 1946, Milwaukie residents James and Mary Rader were strolling with their friend H.C. Foster along the river by the Wisdom Island Moorage in Oak Grove when they saw a strange parcel swirling in an eddy under the dock. The parcel was about the size of a suitcase, wrapped in burlap and tied up with ropes and wires. It looked like it could be something important — or not. Foster thought not; he said it was probably “a bag of drowned cats” and best left alone, but he got a stick and hooked it and dragged it to the shore for curiosity's sake. It was carefully wrapped, that was for sure. And it was a solid object, about 30 inches long and 16 inches wide and less than a foot thick. The three of them untied it and started unwrapping the layers of burlap. They peeled off the burlap, then a grayish-black tweed topcoat, followed by a long pair of “union-suit” underwear, a dark blue sweater, and a pair of brown slacks. The slacks were the inmost layer. When those were removed, the three of them found themselves looking down at a naked female torso — headless, armless, legless. (Portland, Multnomah and Clackamas County; 1920s, 1930s, 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2505a.torso-murder-anna-schrader-698.518.html)

Someone killed Oliver Kermit Smith with a massive dynamite bomb planted under his car seat ... and police soon figured out who. But did Smith's wife really put the killer up to the job, like a real-life version of Nicole Kidman's character in 'To Die For'? (Portland, Multnomah County; 1950s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1811d.kermit-smith-murder-car-bomb-523.html)

After being nearly killed in a range war, sheep baron Jack Edwards started looking for a more peaceable place to run his operation. He found it in Hay Creek Ranch, near Prineville; and soon after settling in, he proceeded to put Oregon's wool industry on the map. (Near Shaniko, Wasco County; 1890s, 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1811c.sheep-king-jack-edwards-522.html)

Is there a lost crystal cave in central Oregon somewhere, lined with thousands of quartz crystals? Or is the whole thing just a legend? If it's real, maybe it would be better if we never found out .... (Deschutes and Crook counties, 1890s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1811a.central-oregon-lost-crystal-cave-520.html)

In September, deranged housewife Emma Hannah gunned down a dangerously sexy neighbor she suspected of making moves on her husband; then in November, 18-year-old Lloyd Montgomery had a temper tantrum and murdered his parents. (Jordan and Brownsville, Linn County; 1890s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1810a.1812.montgomery-murder.html)

A recording of an on-air conversation with Bill Lundun and Gerry Snyder of the Wake Up Call on Eugene's KPNW Radio AM 1120, in May of 2024. Topic: When Thomas Lawson, one of the architects of the Anaconda Copper affair, one of the greatest pump-and-dump swindles in Wall Street history, came to Prineville and used his Wall Street wiles to foil Silver Lake's evil plan to win a baseball tournament. (For the full story, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2405a-1211a.thomas-lawson-baseball-bet-196.648.html)

IF THERE WERE a category in the Guinness Book of World Records for the state with the crankiest former governor, Oregon would surely hold the title. The state would have earned the record in 1886, when it elected Sylvester Pennoyer. And Pennoyer would have clinched it seven years later with a telegram he shot off to the President of the United States of America telling him, in essence, to mind his own damn business. His precise words: Washington: I will attend to my business. Let the president attend to his.          — Sylvester Pennoyer, Governor of Oregon. This famous telegram was in response to a note from the president, Grover Cleveland, urging western governors to take steps to make sure no Chinese people got hurt in riots or demonstrations following the renewal of the Chinese Exclusion Act. The president had sent the same telegram to the governors of Idaho and California and gotten very different replies. (Washington wasn't a state yet.) But then, Pennoyer was no friend of the Chinese. Or any other ethnic minority either, for that matter. In fact, he owed his governorship to an incident in 1886 in which he and a mob of workers crashed an outdoor meeting being held by the mayor of Portland and turned it into a slogan-chanting anti-Chinese rally-cum-riot. His role in the riot catapulted him to the head of the anti-Chinese worker movement in Oregon, which clinched the election for him a few months later. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let's take this story from the top — it's more interesting that way.... (Salem, Marion County; 1880s, 1890s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2502d1008a.pennoyer-crackpot-governor-690.082.html)

The saloon owners won in court, but the temperance ladies absolutely destroyed them in the court of public opinion. Delighted, the preachers and patriarchs who fancied themselves their leaders geared up for victory in the upcoming election ... and seriously overplayed their hand. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1902d.temperance-wars-4of4-536.html)

Angry, surly saloonkeeper Walter Moffett attracted a large, hostile crowd with his harassment of a group of ladies holding a prayer service outside his bar. When the crowd rioted and trashed his saloon, he got the Portland police chief — also a saloon owner — to arrest them for instigating it. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1902c.temperance-wars-3of4-535.html)

Very few of Portland's saloonkeepers threw firecrackers at the ladies of the Women's Temperance Prayer League and called them 'damn whores' when they came by to hold prayer services at their bars. But, as the old song goes, there's one in every crowd ... and it's usually Walter Moffett of the Webfoot Saloon. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1902b.temperance-wars-2of4-534.html)

Inspired by the successes of temperance activists back east, a group of Portland ladies decided to take their message of abstinance out of the churches and into the streets. They may have been surprised by the reaction they got. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1902a.temperance-wars-1of4-533.html)