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'Oregon's Native Stepson' Hoover saved millions from starving to death
When World War I broke out, Herbert Hoover was the world's most successful mining engineer. He abandoned all that to build an organization to feed the starving, first in Belgium and then throughout w…
Published on 2 months, 1 week ago
Lonely Newburg orphan grew up to be President
He arrived in Oregon at age 9, and people called him “Poor Little Bertie.” He left Oregon for good to go to college at Stanford when he was 17. But Herbert Clark Hoover remained a member of the Salem…
Published on 2 months, 1 week ago
Mayor’s wife gave him a real election-day surprise
Laura Starcher and her friends were fed up with the halfhearted, desultory service they were getting from city government. So they got organized, ran for all the public offices, and won ... much to t…
Published on 2 months, 1 week ago
Skunk’s pelt would be best admired from far away
Clarence the logger was running a trapline as a side hustle. One day, he decided a passing skunk would look great on his stretching rack, and impulsively seized the skunk with his bare hands. This di…
Published on 2 months, 1 week ago
‘12 Angry Men’ couldn’t have happened in Oregon
At Jake Silverman's trial, 11 jurors wanted him to hang, but couldn't convince the lone holdout to change his vote. So voters changed the law and made Oregon the only state in the country where you c…
Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago
The life and death of a P-town gangster and moll
It had been an accident, but small-time Portland crook Jimmy Walker had shot Rose City crime boss “Shy Frank” Kodat. Unfortunately for Jimmy, he picked the wrong friend to run to for help. (Portland,…
Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Hank Vaughan, Oregon’s legendary outlaw: Part 3
The Outlaw as Elder Statesman: In 1883, Eastern Oregon's wildest horse-rustling gunfighter gave up his stock-thieving ways (mostly) and became a wheat farmer. But to say he'd settled down wouldn't qu…
Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Hank Vaughan, Oregon’s legendary outlaw: Part 2
The Oregon frontier's most colorful almost-outlaw spent a dozen years dodging posses and slipping in and out of the Indian reservation with stolen horses and cattle. Some of his exploits are still be…
Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Hank Vaughan, Oregon’s legendary outlaw: Part 1
Quick to make both friends and enemies, Oregon's most famous frontier cowboy and almost-outlaw was a gifted horseman and rustler. But his hard-drinking, quick-shooting ways nearly got him lynched as …
Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Machine-made ice cream cones invented in P-town
THIS TIME OF year, the burden of all the serious arguments and disagreements left over from Thanksgiving dinner melt deliciously into a far more congenial controversy, which plays out at every ice-cr…
Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago