Offbeat Oregon History podcast

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Famous ‘Doolittle Raid’ roots in Pendleton air base (1 of 3) Mar 11, 2026

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Oregon played a vital role in America's answer to Pearl Harbor — the daring daylight airstrike on Tokyo and other Japanese cities that provided a much-needed morale boost during the dark days of 1942. (Pendleton, Umatilla County; 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1504c.part1-doolittles-pendleton-raiders.335.html)

Mona Bell was like Annie Oakley with an edge Mar 10, 2026

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Although she's most remembered for being the mistress of a famous man, journalist and rodeo performer Mona Bell Hill was, on her own, one of the most interesting people ever to live in Oregon — and, to the government, one of the most vexing. (Bonneville, Multnomah County; 1910s, 1920s, 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1706d.mona-bell-wild-west-bearcat-449.html)

Columbia River was a wild, frothy, dangerous place once Mar 09, 2026

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The Columbia, the Great river of West, was known for spectacular scenery and phenomenal fishing; Oregon has traded that for a placid, lake-like waterway and cheap hydroelectric power. (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1009a_celilo-falls-part-of-once-wild-Columbia.html)

Storm-tossed ships shared a double date with destiny Mar 06, 2026

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The Mindora and the Merrithew had docked next to each other in San Francisco, arrived within a few days of each other, wrecked within a few hours of each other, and washed up on the beach within a few miles of each other. (Columbia River Bar, Clatsop County; 1850s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1505b.mindora-merrithew-double-shipwreck-338.html)

“Roaring 20s” murder solved by cop’s diligence Mar 05, 2026

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Caught by a railroad “bull,” the thief shot his way out and ran for it. But an accurate shot by the dying guard and some persistent police work brought the bad guy to justice in a pistol-waving scene in a seedy Albina hotel room. (Albina, Multnomah County; 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1205a-roaring-20s-railroad-murder-mystery-solved.html)

Oregon’s highest, smallest city once had its jail stolen Mar 04, 2026

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Because of how it's chartered, the ghost town of Greenhorn remained an incorporated city even when its population was zero — but it couldn't defend its city hoosegow from the midnight raiders of Canyon City one summer night. (Grant and Baker County; 1960s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1505d.greenhorn-smallest-city-jail-stolen-340.html)

Miracle saved sailors from death on Columbia bar Mar 03, 2026

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As they hung in the riggings of the sailing ship Etoile du Matin waiting for death, they felt their ship start to break apart — but the piece that broke off first was the keel, enabling the ship to float upriver to safety. (Columbia River Bar, Clatsop County; 1840s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1504b.etoile-matin-miracle-shipwreck.334.html)

Historic lighthouse saved by a nonexistent ghost ... but was she, really? Mar 02, 2026

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But did Lischen M. Miller create the story of Muriel Trevenard, the mysterious young woman who came to Newport in the 1870s and vanished ... or did she merely write down a story that locals whispered to each other on stormy nights? (Newport, Lincoln County; 1870s, 1890s, 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1709a.muriel-trevenard-evan-macclure-yaquina-bay-lighthouse-ghosts-459.html)

Heppner's devastation brought out heroism in face of watery death (2 of 2) Feb 27, 2026

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WHEN IT WAS over, the survivors in Heppner had an awful job ahead of them. A quote from the Portland Oregonian, reprinted in DenOuden’s article in the Oregon Historical Quarterly, sums it up: “Scenes at Heppner are indescribable in their gruesomeness, their anguish, their awful desolation. No pen can exaggerate the horrors they present. Every heap of debris may contain a human forming decomposition. Many do reveal such spectacles when uncovered, and meantime Willow Creek, as if to mock the dead, has returned to a purling brooklet.” (Heppner, Umatilla County; 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2412c1004c.heppner-flood-worst-in-history-680.070.html)

Worst natural flash flood in U.S. history struck here (Part 1 of 2) Feb 26, 2026

Show notes

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 states. “All communication with that town has been cut off and nothing definite can be learned.” The silence must have struck the editors as ominous. Heppner was a modern 20th-century town, with a telegraph office and a telephone exchange. Also, by press time they would have at least heard rumors that a massive, unsanitary slug of muddy water clotted with farm animals, household goods, and other domestic debris had just gushed downhill through the towns of Lexington and Ione following the banks of the usually-tiny Willow Creek, doing considerable property damage. Lexington and Ione were just downstream from Heppner. It wouldn’t be until late Sunday night, well past the hour the Oregonian was on the presses, that the outside world would start to learn the full story: At 5:20 p.m. on that sultry Sunday afternoon, a wall of muddy, turbulent water 30 to 40 feet high had slammed into the town, scooping up roughly a third of its buildings and killing 247 of Heppner’s 1,290 residents. It was the worst flash-flood disaster in U.S. history with the sole exception of Pennsylvania’s Johnstown Flood, measured by loss of life. (The hurricane-driven flooding that struck North Carolina earlier this year, including the city of Asheville, killed 129, including 26 who are still missing). And it remains the deadliest disaster of any kind in the history of Oregon. (Heppner, Umatilla County; 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2412c1004c.heppner-flood-worst-in-history-680.070.html)

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