UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON LIBRARIES/PHOTO Stewart Holbrook (left) with Washington Governor Arthur Langlie, Oregon Governor Earl Snell, and Arthur Priault of the West Coast Lumbermen’s Association, standing on the Interstate Bridge in 1943. I. Ninety-eight years ago, in a logging camp deep in the forests of British Columbia, a logger in[Read More…]
Author: Finn J.D. John
Not all fugitives in Oregon were running from the law
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 be her home for the rest of her life. At that time, Portland had a a reputation as a good place to hide out when[Read More…]
Oregonians played prominent role in 1930s’ most horrific murder
OREGON DIVORCEE AGNES Anne “Annie” LeRoi arrived in Phoenix in the first few months of 1931 with her best friend and roommate, schoolteacher Hedvig “Sammy” Samuelson. They were climate refugees: Sammy had tuberculosis, and at the time the only cure for “consumption” was a dry climate and rest. Agnes Anne LeRoi[Read More…]
Offbeat Oregon History: Coos Bay shipwreck was scene of massive, drunken looting party
PHOTO: COOS HISTORY MUSEUM The steamship Santa Clara stands almost high and dry on the beach at the mouth of Coos Bay early in the day on Nov. 5, 1915, surrounded by onlookers and would-be looters. ON THE MORNING OF NOV. 5, 1915, at the back of the entrance to Coos[Read More…]