Podcast Episodes
Back to Search
Riot at bar led to charges … but not against rioters
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 salo…
Published on 5 months, 1 week ago
Stubborn saloonkeeper refused to play nice (Temperance Riots of 1874, part 2 of 4)
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. Bu…
Published on 5 months, 1 week ago
Portland’s “Temperance War of ’74”: The backstory (Temperance Riots of 1874, part 1 of 4)
Inspired by the successes of temperance activists back east, a group of Portland ladies decided to join the “crusade against that terrible villain, Demon Rum” and take their message of abstinance out…
Published on 5 months, 1 week ago
Wife acquitted of murder after shooting husband
DAWN WAS ONLY a couple hours away when 33-year-old lumber mill owner Gene Harington got home from a really long night. He pulled into the drive around 5:45 a.m., and immediately proceeded to wake up …
Published on 5 months, 2 weeks ago
When Portland flooded, locals raised the sidewalks
But in 1861, the worst floods in state history turned the Willamette Valley into one giant half-million-acre lake and swept several burgeoning towns away. And, despite our flood-control dams, someday…
Published on 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Huge 1934 P-town dock strike paralyzed the state
Half a century of winning labor disputes left the waterfront employers feeling overconfident. When the Portland longshoremen walked out, they expected it would be a repeat of earlier victories for th…
Published on 5 months, 2 weeks ago
How Portland and Kaiser helped ‘save the Empire’
Arguably, the outcome of World War II became inevitable on the day the S.S. Star of Oregon slid into the Columbia River. It was followed by a torrent of new ships — far more than the Nazis could ever…
Published on 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Stubborn citizen, McCall teamed up for Bottle Bill
Litter enraged outdoor enthusiast Richard Chambers, so he launched a one-man campaign to pass a deposit bill. Then Gov. Tom McCall leaped aboard, and Oregon became the first state to ban nonreturnabl…
Published on 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Finn on KPNW's Wake Up Call: Klondike Kate and the Case of the Fake Katfight
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: There is a persistent myth that the 'real Klondike Kate' was a femal…
Published on 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Empty-nester’s ‘second act’: Riverboat bordello madam
Paddlewheel riverboats and fancy bordello girls seem like a match made in pop-culture heaven, don’t they? Plush “parlour houses” and luxurious riverboats both were common in the “naughty nineties,” a…
Published on 5 months, 3 weeks ago