A recording of an on-air conversation with Bill Lundun and Gerry Snyder of the Wake Up Call on Eugene's KPNW Radio AM 1120. Topic: James Lotan's path from political fixer, to state party president, to drug-smuggling kingpin. (For the full story, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2408a-1202d.james-lotan-opium-king-661.161.html)

There were, so far as we know, no survivors. But when the upside-down hulk drifted ashore, it was 200 miles off course — and there was no sign of the 40-pound keg of gold it had been carrying. What happened? Nobody knows. (Columbia River Bar, Clatsop County; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1112a-missing-gold-makes-mystery-shipwreck-sinister.html)

Shorty Davis was a popular sheepman who one day in 1900 disappeared ... and no one has ever seen a sign of him since. Virtually everyone suspects foul play. (Prineville, Crook County; 1900s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1901b.shorty-davis-coldest-cold-case-mystery-530.html)

It was no 'Heaven's Gate' -- 'The Way West' was more like the 'Ishtar' of the late 1960s. It was spectacularly and expensively shot on location in Oregon, but plans to celebrate its release here foundered in a tidal wave of scathing reviews. (Lane, Deschutes and Lake counties; 1966) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1901a.way-west-movie-spectacular-flop-529.html)

They pedaled their bicycles from Portland to Astoria, snuck aboard a wrecked ocean liner, and spent the night marooned on board, with breakers crashing all around them. (Peacock Spit, Pacific County (Wash.); 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1812d.admiral-benson-shipwreck-summer-vacation.html)

The city business leaders hoped the Shakespeare Festival would do OK, but just in case it tanked, they insisted that it share the stage with a series of prizefights. The boxing matches bombed badly; luckily, the Shakespeare plays did not. (Ashland, Josephine County; 1930s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1704a.shakespeare-festival-vs-boxing.html)

Among musicians and fans of old-time string-band music, Benjamin Franklin Jarrell is basically royalty.

As a member of one of the most influential bands from the golden age of old-time music — DaCosta Woltz’s Southern Broadcasters — old Ben helped preserve that classic Appalachian-mountain style of fiddle-and-banjo string bands. His son, Thomas Jefferson “Tommy” Jarrell, is maybe the most influential old-time fiddle player even today, 40 years after his death.

In Oregon, though, in the years of Ben’s youth, he was a different kind of royalty. The newspapers called him “The King of the Moonshiners.”

And by all accounts, anyone lucky enough to acquire a quart or two of his product had to agree that the title was his.... (Umatilla and Clatsop county; 1910s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2506a.ben-jarrell-king-of-moonshiners-700.519.html)

For more than 40 years, amateurs and pros alike have put forward dozens of theories, many quite plausible and backed with some evidence. But the story seems destined to remain a delicious historical mystery. (Statewide; 1970s, 1980s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1306d-db-cooper-part4-the-theories.html)

The hunt for the man who called himself Dan Cooper started just hours after he disappeared into the night sky with a bag of $20 bills tied to his waist. Did he get away? Did anyone find him? The search continues to this day. (Part 3 of 4 parts) (Portland, Multnomah County; 1970s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1306c-db-cooper-part-3-the-hunt.html)

After demanding four parachutes and a knapsack of $20 bills, the legendary anonymous skyjacker disappeared into the night sky over southwest Washington with $200,000 — touching off a massive manhunt. (Part 2 of 4 parts) (Columbia River, Multnomah County; 1970s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1306b-db-cooper-part-2-the-getaway.html)