Offbeat Oregon History podcast

Listen, download, subscribe

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

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. Their odds of not surviving a season were as high as 1 in 15. (Astoria, Clatsop County; 1880s, 1890s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1206d-most-dangerous-catch-salmon-on-columbia-river-bar.html)

• 

  How Oregon almost lost public access to beaches

• 

  Childhood tree-planting memories for thousands

• 

  Tillamook Burn ‘blew up’ with shocking speed

• 

  Tillamook Burn sprang from loggers’ bad gamble

• 

  Bunco Kelley, Coyote of P-town waterfront legend

• 

  Oregon’s most notorious shanghaier: Bunco Kelley

• 

  Legendary ‘Chief Bigfoot’ elusive as, well, Bigfoot

• 

  Steamer wrecked by future Costa Rica admiral

• 

  Frankie Baker found a home, and some peace, in Oregon

• 

  ‘Johnny’s’ Frankie lived in Portland, hiding from "her song"

• 

  Charming gentleman by day, robber-poet by night

• 

  Rosecrans rescue one of Coast Guard’s finest hours

• 

  Cursed or not, Rosecrans was one unlucky ship

• 

  Town’s police chief was later executed for murder

• 

  Rooftop stunt made local aero-daredevil famous