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She Escaped Oregon’s Highway 20 Killer Only to Find That Police Didn’t Believe Her
Marlene Gabrielsen named John Ackroyd in a 1977 rape report. His later conviction and suspected Highway 20 killings left Oregon families waiting for answers.
The Bizarre 1950 Mystery of an Oregon Farmer, The UFO, and a Festival That Still Lives On
Just your typical overcast Willamette Valley landscape. A rural, mid-century farm scene, the middle ground dotted with trees. Foggy hills in the distance. A wooden telephone pole to the right of the frame with power lines…
Ramblin’ Rod Anders, The Guy With All The Buttons Who Made Oregon Mornings Amazing
The buttons are what I remember first. Before I can quite hear his voice, before the "Baby Elephant Walk" theme music starts up somewhere in the back of my head, I can see that sweater. All…
The History of Springfield’s Forgotten Giant Hillside Sign and the One Little Detail Lost to Time
There’s an old photograph of Springfield that doesn’t look quite real at first. The Willamette River bends through the frame. Steel bridges span the water. Beyond them, houses scatter across a mostly open hillside, where the…
Der Rhinelander, The Old Portland Spot That Served German Dinner With Accordions and Yodeling
There are restaurants you remember because the food was good, and then there are restaurants you remember because a guy with an accordion might appear while you were halfway through a plate of schnitzel and suddenly…
Twilight Was Filmed in Oregon, and Fall Is the Perfect Time to Follow Its Moodiest Trail
By late September, Oregon starts doing half the work for a Twilight road trip. Evergreen hills turn nearly black beneath low clouds. The Columbia goes pewter. The Coast trades its summer brightness for salt spray, wind,…
Oregon Emptied Its Mental Hospitals but Never Fully Built the Safety Net It Promised
Oregon closed thousands of psychiatric hospital beds with a promise of community care. Historical records reveal what happened when that system never caught up.