Podcast Episodes
Back to Search
Legendary ‘Chief Bigfoot’ elusive as, well, Bigfoot
1860s Bannock leader disappeared as mysteriously as he appeared, leaving behind nothing but frontier folklore and a trail of 17-inch-long moccasin pr…
1 month, 1 week ago
In 1880s, salmon were the “most dangerous catch”
Fishermen working in heavy 24-foot boats at the mouth of the Columbia kept getting sucked out onto the bar and drowning in its massive breakers. Thei…
1 month, 1 week ago
Steamer wrecked by future Costa Rica admiral
Ashamed to show his face in Astoria after causing the loss of the biggest passenger liner on the West Coast, Thomas Doig slunk away to South America …
1 month, 1 week ago
Frankie Baker found a home, and some peace, in Oregon
Sometime in 1915, a 40-year-old Black woman named Frankie Baker stepped off the train at Portland’s Union Station. She had come to stay; Oregon would…
1 month, 1 week ago
‘Johnny’s’ Frankie lived in Portland, hiding from "her song"
THE STORY TOLD in “Frankie and Johnny” is very well known — the song has been covered by at least 250 recording artists over the last 120 years. Mae …
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Charming gentleman by day, robber-poet by night
Charles “Black Bart” Bolton's neighbors in San Francisco thought his money came from ownership in gold mines. It turned out it came from furtive excu…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Rosecrans rescue one of Coast Guard’s finest hours
Two motor lifeboat crews went out on the bar to save three surviving sailors. Both boats went to the bottom of the sea — but not a man was lost on ei…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Cursed or not, Rosecrans was one unlucky ship
The big oil tanker had weathered two major catastrophes in the previous year — a stranding and a colossal fire. But for 33 doomed crew members, the t…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Town’s police chief was later executed for murder
At the pay the city of Sandy was offering, Otto Austin Loel was the only man willing to take the job. He didn't turn out to be much of a bargain ... …
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Rooftop stunt made local aero-daredevil famous
“This is an age of do-it-first,” said Silas Christofferson, and proceeded to launch his spindly kite-like “aeroplane” from the roof of a downtown hot…
1 month, 2 weeks ago