Offbeat Oregon History podcast

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Giant skeleton hinted at legend of pirate treasure Mar 25, 2026

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Neighbors wondered if the eight-foot-tall corpse found by developer at what today is YWCA Camp Westwind was evidence that an old Native American legend of a pirate ship is true; if so, there might actually be booty buried there, some say. (Cascade Head, Lincoln County; 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1204e-giant-skeleton-evidence-of-pirate-treasure-legend.html)

Mass murderer honored in courthouse monument Mar 24, 2026

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75 years ago, without realizing who he was, Wallowa County included Bruce “Blue” Evans — leader of the gang that massacred dozens of innocent Chinese miners back in 1887 — on a plaque commemorating its earliest white settlers. (Enterprise, Wallowa County; 1880s, 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1204b-monument-mass-murderer-chinese-miners.html)

‘Ship of Romance and Death’ met a dramatic end Mar 23, 2026

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The Melanope's maritime career started with a witch's curse. But her most dramatic story was the torrid, doomed love affair its skipper carried on with the heiress who bought the ship so she could be with him as he sailed it. (Columbia River Bar, Clatsop County; 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1506b.cursed-ships-melanope-343.html)

Prison break happened during “conjugal visit” Mar 20, 2026

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By far the most embarrassing jailbreak in state history happened when a murderer simply walked out the back door of a Motel 6 during an unsupervised “date” with a woman officials thought was his fiancee. (Salem, Marion County; 1970s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1207c-carl-cletus-bowles-jailbreak-during-conjugal-visit.html)

Portland lost world’s biggest log cabin in 1964 fire Mar 19, 2026

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Ancient electrical wiring ignited Portland's legendary Forestry Building, a structure made of massive, flawless old-growth logs that had been built for the Lewis and Clark Exposition in 1905. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1960s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1206c-forestry-building-biggest-log-cabin-burned.html)

The mysterious demise of the S.S. South Coast Mar 18, 2026

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Historic steam schooner vanished on a calm night in 1930, leaving lifeboats and debris floating in the water — but no bodies, alive or dead. Was it a violent micro-storm? A “seaquake”? A boiler explosion? We'll never really know. (Gold Beach, Curry County; 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1206b-mysterious-disappearance-of-steamer-south-coast.html.html)

Horrific 'Trunk Murders' made headlines nationwide (Part 2 of 2) Mar 17, 2026

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Ruth Judd was in a fierce argument with her friends Annie Leroi and Sammy Samuelson. Furious, she stood up to go. She took her drink cup to drop it off in the kitchen sink. When she got there — well, something happened. Something involving a kitchen knife, a Colt .25 automatic, and possibly another, larger-caliber pistol... (Phoenix, Arizona; 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/21-03.trunk-murders-anne-leroi-595.html)

Locals drawn into 1930s’ most notorious murder (Part 1 of 2) Mar 16, 2026

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OREGON DIVORCEE AGNES Anne “Annie” LeRoi arrived in Phoenix in the first few months of 1931 with her best friend and roommate, schoolteacher Hedvig “Sammy” Samuelson. They were climate refugees: Sammy had tuberculosis, and at the time the only cure for “consumption” was a dry climate and rest. Back then, many patients with TB waited until they were so far gone that the climate couldn’t save them; essentially, they moved to Arizona to die. Sammy wasn’t one of them; her case was mild. But, although she didn’t know it, she, too, was moving to Arizona to die. She had less than nine months to live. So did Annie. Neither one of them would die of tuberculosis, though. (Phoenix, Arizona; 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/21-03.trunk-murders-anne-leroi-595.html)

Oregon’s Doolittle raiders and their startling stories (3 of 3) Mar 13, 2026

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Two of them had movies made about their wartime exploits — “30 Seconds over Tokyo” and “The Great Escape”; a third, captured and imprisoned in the raid, returned to Japan after the war as a Christian missionary. (Pendleton, Umatilla County; 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1505a.part3-doolittles-pendleton-raiders-337.html)

The Oregonians who flew over Tokyo with Doolittle (2 of 3) Mar 12, 2026

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Robert S. Clever, Everett “Brick” Holstrom, Henry “Hank” Potter and Robert G. Emmens were four Oregon aviators who did the Beaver State proud in what seemed like a suicide mission over enemy territory. (Pendleton, Umatilla County; 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1504d.part2-doolittles-pendleton-raiders-336.html)

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