Offbeat Oregon: Oregon Territory journalism began with a flamboyant Flumgudgeon
In west’s first newspaper, every copy was written out longhand It’s widely known that the first newspaper west of the Mississippi River was the short-lived Oregon Spectator, which published ...
Offbeat Oregon: 1890s governor to U.S. president: Mind your own damn business
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 ...
Offbeat Oregon: Former town marshal protested his firing by murdering the new marshal
Everyone in the tiny Harney County town of Westfall knew something bad was going to happen after City Marshal Asa Carey was fired for the second time. Carey had been an odd pick for city marshal, but ...
Offbeat Oregon: Epic wagon-road swindle made headlines nationwide
A few years after Oregon became a state, some of its leaders participated in what might actually have been the biggest non-Indian-related land-grab swindle in U.S. history. That’s putting it a bit ...
Offbeat Oregon: Lewis and Clark blazed trail with heavy-metal laxatives
As Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery made its way across the continent to Oregon, the men (and woman) of the party probably weren’t thinking much about their place in history. So they weren’t ...
Offbeat Oregon: Jackrabbit-massacre parties were all the rage a century ago
Imagine, for a moment, that you’re passing through a little Harney County town when you see, in a used-car lot, a DMC DeLorean that someone has modified as a replica of the car from “Back to ...
Offbeat Oregon: Deadly Long Creek tornado was worst in state’s history
Around New Year’s, many writers make a regular practice of looking back upon the past year and writing about it. I suspect this practice got started with Penny Press-era newshounds who found it very ...
Offbeat Oregon: Frederic Balch’s dreamy mythology came to define wilderness Oregon
Here is a pop quiz for Oregon history enthusiasts, and yes, it’s a trick question. But, humor me: What comes to your mind when I mention the name “Balch”? For most of us, it’s ...
Offbeat Oregon: World’s shortest river is still long on drama – and hilarity
Far away from the Beaver State, in the backcountry of West Virginia by the Kentucky border, a man named Floyd Hatfield was the proud owner of a fine razorback hog. A distant neighbor, from across the ...
Offbeat Oregon: The country’s deadliest natural flash flood happened in Heppner
On June 15, 1903, a strange little article appeared in the Portland Morning Oregonian. “It is reported that a tremendous cloudburst occurred at Heppner late in the afternoon,” the article ...
Offbeat Oregon: Bing cherries are a product of the Oregon Trail
When cherry season rolls around, there’s never much doubt about what varieties you’ll find in your local grocery store. They’ll usually have some white or blush cherries, typically Royal ...
Offbeat Oregon: Fiery, explosive shipwreck gave Boiler Bay its name
A mile or two north of the picturesque little Central Coast town of Depoe Bay, there’s a little unassuming wide spot at the side of Highway 101 where you can pull off the road and park. There are ...
Offbeat Oregon: The state’s oldest hotel was a hideaway for Hollywood stars
There were times, during Hollywood’s golden age, when Clark Gable simply couldn’t be found anywhere. Studio executives would search frantically for the top-shelf star, needing to talk to him ...
Offbeat Oregon: The summer Buster Keaton made Cottage Grove a mini-Hollywood
If a Cottage Grove logger had been bonked on the head in January 1926, and woke up six months later, he would have scarcely recognized his home town. There was a whole new Main Street built way out east ...
