Offbeat Oregon: ‘Oregon System’ showed the nation how to fight corruption
As the year 1896 drew to a close, something like a revolution was brewing in the state of Oregon. It was becoming increasingly clear that out-of-state interests were wielding a lot of power in the Beaver ...
Offbeat Oregon: How Portland helped save England and Canada
At the beginning of 1941, the United Kingdom was standing alone against the Nazi empire in Europe, and not much of the smart money was on it holding out for more than another eight or 10 months. But it ...
Offbeat Oregon: The rise and fall of the Oregon Electric Railroad
American tourists visiting Italy and other Old World destinations, if they get off the beaten tourist-track a bit, often remark on the number of derelict buildings they see along the roads there. Hulking, ...
Offbeat Oregon: Is beeswax just the beginning?
Buried somewhere in the sands off Nehalem Spit is Oregon’s oldest known shipwreck — and it’s a wreck that may be a genuine treasure ship. The wreck has become known as the “Beeswax ...
Offbeat Oregon: Prohibition liquor raid went horribly wrong
On a broad flat stretch of the Willamette Valley floor, just across the freeway from the town of Shedd, lies a little cluster of buildings and a Mennonite church — all that remains of the little ...
Offbeat Oregon: Once the state’s soggiest town, Valsetz is now just a memory
If you should ever get really lost while exploring the spaghetti tangle of Forest Service routes and old logging roads in the Coast Range woodlands west of Falls City, you just might stumble upon the mortal ...
Offbeat Oregon: 'Atlantic City of the West' was swallowed by the sea
Just off Highway 131, near the town of Tillamook, there’s a scenic overlook from which you can gaze out over a long, barren peninsula, slender and low-lying and sandy, dotted with beach grass and ...
Offbeat Oregon: Gold rush-era Jacksonville, where the bank 'robbed' you
The concept of interest payments is old and universal. Since its earliest beginnings, the banking industry has followed this simple precept: When you deposit money, you earn interest on it. But there ...
Offbeat Oregon: Pioneering geologist left a mark on the state literally
If you’ve ever taken the National Parks Service tour of the Oregon Caves, you’ll probably remember the part where the guide points out a stalagmite covered with names, scrawled out ...
Offbeat Oregon: Bootlegger's liquor buy ended in dramatic murder
It was well after 8 p.m. on the night of April 16, 1922, around 82nd and Division in Portland, and Albert Bowker was getting nervous. His 49-year-old brother, Frank, had left downtown Portland ...
Offbeat Oregon: The day Andy Warhol pranked UO students
The day Andy Warhol pranked Oregon college students On the evening of Oct. 5, 1967, students were pouring out of the doors of one of the biggest rooms in Oregon State University’s Erb Memorial ...
Offbeat Oregon: Stagecoach Charley had surprising secret
In the frontier years before the arrival of railroads to the West Coast, the tough characters who drove the stagecoaches were among the most admired citizens. And among those stagecoach drivers ...
Offbeat Oregon: Oregon has been home since at least 12,400 B.C.
Oregon is a very young state. Its oldest buildings — those whose dates are known, at any rate — went up in the 1850s; many a visitor from the East Coast, where there are still buildings constructed ...
Savvy Senior: How and when to apply for Social Security
Dear Savvy Senior: What is the easiest way to apply for my Social Security retirement benefits, and how far in advance do I need to apply before I start collecting? Approaching 62 Savvy Senior Jim ...
Offbeat Oregon: Newspaperman was ‘father of Crater Lake’
In Oregon, there’s one place where you’re allowed to fish for free — and you’ve got a former Albany newspaper owner to thank for that. In Oregon’s famous Crater Lake you ...
