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Skipper doubled down on a bad bet ... and lost it all
ONE GRAY OCTOBER day in 1898, three British ship captains were sitting in the parlor of the Seamen’s Rest, a sort of YMCA for sailors located in the bustling port of Tacoma. They were in a betting mo…
Published on 4 weeks, 1 day ago
Bad recording technique led to FBI investigation
Portland band The Kingsmen recorded the song quickly and cheaply, and the words they were singing were unintelligible. But when the song became a hit, fans started guessing at the lyrics ... and some…
Published on 1 month ago
P-town’s rabbi got in gun fight at President’s hotel
Oct. 1, 1880, was a very big day in Portland. For the first time in the history of the city or the state, a sitting President of the United States had come to visit. President Rutherford B. Hayes had…
Published on 1 month ago
Shipwrecked sailors had to paddle 200 miles to safety
While the captain of the Emily G. Reed was sadly reporting the loss of 11 brave mariners, four of the missing were adrift, desperately bailing water out of a damaged and leaky lifeboat. Destination: …
Published on 1 month ago
City-bus-powered cable car scheme was epic flop (Part 2 of 2)
IF THE IDEA of cable car service to Timberline Lodge strikes you as a not particularly bad one, you’re not alone. Over the years since the Wyler group proposed the glass-and-steel mountaintop skyscra…
Published on 1 month ago
Timberline could have been a gaudy skyscraper (Part 1 of 2)
HIGH UP ON the side of Mount Hood, Timberline Lodge has over the years become an Oregon icon. Its rustic, WPA-financed design and construction strike most visitors as a good fit for the state’s gener…
Published on 1 month ago
Outlaw Bill Miner’s first train robbery was a fiasco
Fresh from a 20-year stretch in the pen, the famous stagecoach robber known as 'The Gray Fox' found the world had changed and he would now have to learn to rob trains instead. His learning curve star…
Published on 1 month, 1 week ago
Taming of the Rascal: Chambreau’s redemption (Part 2 of 2)
After blowing his chance at a prosperous, respectable life in the Tygh Valley, the gambler and liquor man roared through frontier life as a keeper of rowdy saloons and bawdy joints before a Temperanc…
Published on 1 month, 1 week ago
A crooked gambler’s-eye view of frontier Oregon (Part 1 of 2)
French-Canadian gambler started out as one of the most scurrilous rascals in the state, then reformed his ways and became one of its most earnest and effective reformers. This is the story of his ear…
Published on 1 month, 1 week ago
Was suspicious death in ‘boneyard’ really murder?
The coroner ruled Thomas McMahon's death an accident, and everyone moved on. But the testimony of witness Eliza “Boneyard Mary” Bunets was suspicious and contradictory. Could she have gotten away wit…
Published on 1 month, 1 week ago