Shanghaiers … weird cults … dumb criminals and clumsy power grabbers …
Since 2008 the Offbeat Oregon History syndicated newspaper column has entertained and informed Oregonians with the weirdest, quirkiest, funniest, and most outrageous true stories in the surprisingly long history of their young state.
Now, for the first time, those stories have been collected together, re-researched, augmented with freshly discovered information, and presented to readers in book form!
This is Volume 3, in which you’ll find a collection of the worst ideas ever tried – ideas like …
… using dynamite to get rid of a beached whale …
… leaving a wife and family to start a ‘free love health cult’ in Honduras …
… making a cable tram service out of logging parts and a couple of city buses …
… passing a law stripping brides of their citizenship at the altar …
… selling milk out of the same buckets you use to slop the hogs …
… try to take a skunk pelt using your bare hands …
… build a sternweel riverboat powered by cows …
… build a monument at the county courthouse honoring a mass murderer …
… and 37 more!
You’ll also find some of the most certifiably horrible characters in any state, ranging from ‘lovably horrible’ characters like Old Joe Huddlestun, the grumpy neighbor who blew up his local schoolhouse with dynamite because the kids were too loud at recess, to seriously awful characters like ex-Governor Charles Martin, who, as an Army general after World War I, supervised the deliberate and systematic breaking of the spirit of an entire divisional cohort of returning war heroes.
Not to mention …
… Luther Powell, Oregon’s top leader of the multi-level marketing version of the Ku Klux Klan …
… Greenberry Smith, the pioneer who stole his neighbor’s land from his wife and kids after he died …
… the De Autremont Brothers, history’s most incompetent but deadly train robbers …
… ‘Bud’ Thompson, prickly Southern newspaper editor, who escalated a feud with another paper to a gunfight …
… L.G. Carpenter, the shyster lawyer who tried to steal a neighbor’s land by having him shanghaied …
… Larry Sullivan, godfather of Portland shanghaiers and later mining-stock swindler …
… ‘Ma Anand’ Sheela Silverman, architect of the biggest domestic biological-warfare attack in U.S. history …
You’ll find a total of 62 of them in this 468-page book, along with more than 100 vintage photographs, newspaper clippings, and other pieces of art.
Mục lục
Part I: Bad Ideas. 1
Blow up a beached whale with dynamite. 3
Start a ‘free-love’ cult in Honduras. 9
Start a shooting riot over a Vaudeville actress. 21
Build a high-speed highway on a scenic beach. 27
Move your airplane’s wings to see what happens. 33
Build a town on beach sand. 39
Build a riverboat powered by cows 45
Open a Disneyland-type park someplace rainy 51
Replace Timberline Lodge with a skyscraper. 59
Use a city bus as a cable-car gondola 65
Open an amusement park and make it creepy 69
Buy a ten-ton, ill-tempered ex-circus elephant. 75
Let A.C. Edmunds work for your social-justice cause. 81
Try to climb Haystack Rock. 91
Try to win a labor strike with acts of terrorism. 97
Demolish a historic hotel to build a parking lot. 105
Build luxury condos during the Great Depression. 111
Try to force the U.S. Mint to build in your city. 115
Spend millions to make a really bad movie 121
Strip the bride of her U.S. citizenship at the altar. 127
Try to exclude Black people from your new state 133
Sell milk out of the same cans you slop hogs with. 139
Introduce super-flammable invasive plants to your town. 145
Burgle the county treasurer’s office looking for treasure. 149
Convict murder suspects on a majority vote. 155
Try to take a skunk pelt with your bare hands. 161
Bring an unexploded bomb home in the glovebox. 167
Trade Celilo Falls for some cheap hydro power. 171
Part II: Horrible People Part One: Shanghaiers. 177
Jim Turk, O.G. shanghaier of old Portland 181
Larry Sullivan, godfather of Oregon shanghaiers 185
‘Mysterious’ Billy Smith, world champion shanghaier 203
The Jost Brothers, wannabe shanghaiers 213
Shanghaiers of Astoria 219
L.G. Carpenter, shanghaiing lawyer and land thief 223
Bridget Grant, shanghaiing boardinghouse keeper. 229
‘Mr. Smith’ and his shanghaiing riverboat party. 233
The U.S. Supreme Court in 1897. 239
Portland’s Shanghai Tunnels: Are they real?. 247
Part III: More Horrible People 255
Greenberry Smith, homestead-land thief. 257
M. Ryan, gun-fighting pro-slavery college president. 263
W.F. Woodward, vindictive Libary Board member. 269
Maj. Gen. Charles H. Martin, fascist ex-governor. 275
… and 20 more, which cannot be listed for lack of space!
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