Logger, watching 'timber worms' chew through a log, wondered, 'How do they do that?' So he took some home, figured it out, and invented the modern chisel-toothed cutting chain. (Tillamook County; 1940s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1809b.joe-cox-invents-bug-inspired-chainsaw-512.html)

Joe Wolf invented it for loggers, but they wanted nothing to do with his electric saw. Luckily for Joe, the construction and shipbuilding industry loved it. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1809a.wolf-electric-chainsaw-511.html)

Stranded four-masted schooner North Bend, the last sailing ship ever built in Oregon, was stranded on Peacock Spit; it worked its way through and, a little over a year later, launched itself in Baker Bay on the other side. (Columbia River Bar, Clatsop County; 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1108d-last-sailing-ship-crossed-a-beach-relaunched.html)

R. Thomas Dickerson, after gunning down the chief witness in his wife's upcoming suit for divorce, clearly expected the jury to buy his claim that the man was a “home-wrecker” and deserved what he got. He miscalculated. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1900s)(For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1510a.dickerson-UnLaw.html)

NOTE: This will be the last of these oral-history readings until at least summer. If you have been enjoying them, please reach out and let me know. — This one is writer Sara B. Wrenn's oral history interview with the great-granddaughter of old Sam Barlow — he of the Barlow Road. They discuss a famous avenue of black walnuts, which are probably the progenitor-trees of every black walnut in the state today; and some twin-sisters hijinks that took place on a riverboat, and changed the destiny of an entire pioneer family. (For the transcript, see https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001993/ )

SOMETIME IN 1922, a letter came in to the city of Pendleton. Enclosed with it was a bill for $45 — for a set of new Goodyear tires. It seemed the letter writer had come to Pendleton for the annual Pendleton Round-Up and had lost both front tires to the city’s downtown potholes. Pendleton’s potholes were famous, both for their size and for their intractability. They seemed hungry; one filled them up and a few weeks later they were empty again, as if some night-stalking gravel thief had scooped it all out. It wasn’t until the 1970s and 1980s, when some of Pendleton’s most intractable roadbeds got a complete rebuild, that road crews realized what the problem had been: Tunnels. The town was honeycombed with them, running a few feet below the ground level, connecting the basements and sidewalk vaults downtown with various other places nearby. And, that’s how the Pendleton Underground was rediscovered. (Pendleton, Umatilla County; 1890s, 1900s 1910s, 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2410d1001e_PendletonUnderground-673.059.html)

The farmer was a former Union general; the pastor, an ex-Rebel soldier who once faced his forces on a battlefield. But in Corvallis, they traded enmity for friendship, and blue-vs.-gray for Beavers-vs.-Ducks. (Corvallis, Benton County; 1890s, 1900s, 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1510b.bell-thorp-civil-war-story.360.html)

There is a persistent myth that the 'real Klondike Kate' was a female Mountie named Kate Ryan, and that Kate Rockwell, the dancer, stole her name and reputation. It's a bogus charge, but the real story of Klondike Kate, the Belle of Dawson who later took up a land claim near Brothers and became known as Aunt Kate of Farewell Bend, is way more interesting than the myth. (Brothers, Deschutes County; 1910s, 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2403d-1108b.klondike-kate-katfight-1of2-137.641.html)

A Linn County case with a strong element of self-defense, and a Malheur County child-abuse travesty that ended with a shotgun blast, were called Unwritten Law triumphs in the newspapers — but there were differences. (Linn and Malheur County; 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1509d.powell-n-brown-UnLaw.html)

Part 2 of 2: WPA writer William Haight's oral history interview with Gertrude Balch Ingalls, sister of legendary frontier Columbia Gorge writer Frederic Balch (author of The Bridge of the Gods, and probably the first really important author in Oregon history) recalling ghost stories, common superstitions of frontier folk, and some personal memories of attending weeks-long camp revival meetings. (For the transcript, as well as a good bit of additional content such as song lyrics and original poetry by Frederic Balch, see https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001941/ )

One-term governor had a team of secret agents working for him, trying to subvert labor unions and ferret out communists; but most of their efforts seemed to end up scoring points for the “other team.” (Salem, Marion County; 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1601a.charles-martin-part3.272.html)