(For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1408a.tillamook-burn-pt2-the-legacy.html)

Offbeat Oregon History podcast

Tillamook Burn ‘blew up’ with shocking speed

A hard-pressed crew tried to snake just a few more logs out before quitting for the day, hoping nothing would go wrong in the tinder-dry forest. Unfortunately, something did. (Near Forest Grove, Washington County; 1930s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1407d.tillamook-burn-1933-outbreak.html)

Tillamook Burn sprang from loggers’ bad gamble

Settlers in John Day in the late 1800s learned the healer of Kam Wah Chung could cure diseases others couldn't; all his patients survived the fatal Spanish Flu epidemic in 1919. (John Day, Grant County; 1880s-1920s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1406d.doc-hay-lung-on.html)

Pioneer Chinese doc was a city treasure in John Day

The case of John Ottoson (ne Otokichi) in 1832 illustrates what can happen: Blown off to sea by a gale, he and his comrades rode the Kuroshio Current to what's now Washington State — much to the astonishment of Dr. John McLoughlin. (Vancouver, W.T.; 1830s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1404d.japanese-junks-blown-across-to-oregon.html)

Japanese shipwrecks on coast predate Columbus

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 and remade himself as a military man. (Columbia River Bar, Clatsop County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1408c.300.great-republic-wreck.html)

Steamer wrecked by future Costa Rica navy admiral

Prolific Portland inventor Victor Strode designed a boat that was half airplane and all art-deco-age futurism, and early tests with a smaller model were very promising. But the larger model he built for the city was a disappointment. (Portland and Coos Bay, Multnomah and Coos County; 1930s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1209d-aerohydrocraft-buck-rogers-boat-looked-awesome-didnt-work-out.html)

Buck Rogers-style police boat didn’t work out for Portland

“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 hotel — making aviation history in the heart of Oregon's biggest town. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1910s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1408e.302.silas-christofferson-portland-hero-aviator.html)

Rooftop flight stunt made local aviator-daredevil famous

Calling himself “J. Hawker,” David Heesh dynamited several high-voltage powerline towers, then threatened to keep it up unless ransom was delivered; the FBI busted him using a CB radio trick. (Beavercreek, Clackamas County; 1970s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1404b.beavercreek-bomber-targeted-BPA.html)

Beavercreek Bomber: Give me $1 mil or lights go out

The alcoholic derelicts of on Burnside Street knew they could count on denatured alcohol for a cheap-but-nasty buzz; it might make them sick, but it wouldn't kill them. But then, one day, it did. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1930s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1404c.poison-dehorn-killed-28-hobos.html)

Mislabeled wood alcohol killed 28 Portland hobos

IT WAS A little after 10 p.m. on a Friday evening in the summer of 1921. In their little house on Druid Street in the St. Johns neighborhood of Portland, Robert Green and his family were getting ready for bed when they heard the screams. Rushing to the front porch, they found their neighbor, Ann Louise Agee, in her nightclothes, wild-eyed and disheveled. “Help! Come quick! They’re killing Harry!” she screamed. Green looked across at the Agee home. From where he stood, by the light of streetlamps and the few lights inside the house, he could dimly see the front porch. The door was opening and a figure was staggering out of the front door, clutching at its throat. Then it collapsed on the porch. Green sprinted across and leaped onto the porch. There he found his neighbor, carpenter Harry Agee, in a pool of blood, dying. Looking up at him, Harry opened his mouth and tried to speak. Only a ghastly gurgling resulted from the effort. Harry’s throat had been slashed open. Whoever had done it had missed the jugular vein, but had cut through his windpipe. Harry’s lips were moving as if he were speaking, but no words were coming out. It was as if he were trying to tell Green who had attacked him, but could not. And before he could figure out a way, he lapsed into unconsciousness from the blood loss. He died a few minutes later, on the way to the hospital. This was the opening act in a murder drama that would hold Portland spellbound throughout the summer of 1921 — and one that would convince thousands of Portlanders to lock their doors at night. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1920s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/21-08.harry-agee-murder-mystery-600.html)

100-year-old slasher murder still baffling today

During its glory days, the Gertrude was the fastest blockade runner in the Confederate fleet. But just 17 years later, it was just another dumpy old steamer on a lowly coastwise run, wrecked in what was probably an insurance-fraud scheme. (Coos Bay, Coos County; 1880s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1310a-gussie-telfair-shipwrecked-warrior.html)

Legendary Civil War ship met a sad end in Coos Bay

Mayor Frank Ivancie, Pioneer Courthouse Square’s most intransigent opponent, gleefully declared the project “dead” in a 1982 speech. In doing so, he accidentally galvanized the citizen group that would prove him wrong. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1960s, 1970s, 1980s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1405c.pioneer-courthouse-square.html)

Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square pitched as ‘crystal palace’

Neighbors wondered if the eight-foot-tall corpse found by developer at what today is YWCA Camp Westwind was evidence that an old Native American legend of a pirate ship is true; if so, there might actually be booty buried there, some say. (Lincoln City, Lincoln County; 1930s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1204e-giant-skeleton-evidence-of-pirate-treasure-legend.html)

Giant skeleton find recalled old legend of pirate treasure

Legendary “Cayuse pony” breed gave Indians far more endurance and speed than settlers' mounts, a fact that cost gambler and horseman Joe Crabb most of his ready cash on “The Day Pendleton Went Bankrupt” (Pendleton, Umatilla County; 1870s, 1880s, 1890s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1404a.cayuse-tribes-legendary-ponies.html)

Cayuse tribe’s amazing ponies are now very rare

75 years ago, without realizing who he was, Wallowa County included Bruce “Blue” Evans — leader of the gang that massacred dozens of innocent Chinese miners back in 1887 — on a plaque commemorating its earliest white settlers. (Enterprise, Wallowa County; 1880s, 1930s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1204b-monument-mass-murderer-chinese-miners.html)

Mass murderer honored in monument at county courthouse

A daily (5-day-a-week) podcast feed of true Oregon stories -- of heroes and rascals, of shipwrecks and lost gold. Stories of shanghaied sailors and Skid Road bordellos and pirates and robbers and unsolved mysteries. An exploding whale, a couple shockingly scary cults, a 19th-century serial killer, several very naughty ladies, a handful of solid-brass con artists and some of the dumbest bad guys in the history of the universe. From the archives of the Offbeat Oregon History syndicated newspaper column. Source citations are included with the text version on the Web site at http://offbeatoregon.com.

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